The Dade County School Board held their February meeting as scheduled on Monday evening, February 28th.
During the meeting, it was recommended by Superintendent Josh Ingle that Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Brent Cooper become the next principal of Dade County High School following the resignation of Mr. James Fahrney. The recommendation was voted on by the School Board and approved, unanimously.
Ingle, on his weekly segment on the K-WIN Today program Tuesday morning said, “We anticipate nothing but a seamless transition. We’re looking forward to Mr. Fahrney and Mr. Cooper being able to work together on everything that will take place on July 1st. I’m excited for the two of them to be able to sit down and discuss some of the potential challenges and barriers that will be ahead of them.
Joining Superintendent Ingle during his Tuesday segment, Brent Cooper discussed his professional history and decade tenure in Dade County:
“It’s been an honor to serve in Dade County over the last ten years; from being the baseball coach, the softball coach, to Athletic Director. I’m looking forward to being the principal of Dade County High School, where we’ve got a lot of good teachers and staff members that I look forward to serving with. I can’t wait to hit the ground running.”
According to Cooper, he grew up in New Hope, graduating from South Pittsburg High School. He worked in Hamilton County, with his first administration role coming at the age of 33. “The good Lord put Dade County in my path in 2012, when I became a math teacher at the middle school, before making the transition to Athletic Director at the high school.” (On the now-vacant Athletic Director position): “As Principal, athletics will always be a piece I’ll have my hand in. I believe the good Lord will help us find the right person to fill the position.”
Mr. James Fahrney will remain Dade County High School Principal until July 1st, when the position will be passed to Mr. Brent Cooper.
Along with the two positions Mr. Cooper will be vacating as he takes over as principal (Assistant Principal and Athletic Director), the second Assistant Principal position will also be available. During Monday night’s meeting, a few staff members were announced as having resigned; including Assistant Principal Dr. Jeff Scott. You may view the full list of personnel changes below:
The school board also voted on the redistricting of Dade County. According to Ingle, “Mathematically, if you look at the voting districts on the map; there are four districts and on ‘at large.’ If you divide 16,000 into fourths, each district should have roughly 4,000 people represented. The map aligned with the voting districts was designed in 2004; and the people moving in and out of the county have caused those districts to become disproportionate. District 1 is roughly 3000, and 4 is less than 4500. The board approved the resolution to redistrict; just because they have doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It requires legal action. I know Representative (Mike) Cameron has agreed to sponsor us, but I’m not sure their position on that action.
“I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘what happens if you don’t?’ You run the risk of local control being taken away and ending up in the courts at the state level. At that point, local input on redrawing boundaries is taken out of the hands of the local officials and redrawn at the state level.”
Ingle went on to explain that it would change no one’s voting location. All people would still vote at the same precinct, there would just be a different ballot box.
Also during the meeting, the Board approved an architect to proceed with amended plans for construction of new classrooms at Davis Schools. More information will follow.
You my view the entire meeting and post-executive session in the two videos below:
by Orey Yates
