Current West Fannin Elementary School Principal Lucas Roof will become the new Fannin County School System Director of CTAE/STEM starting January 1.
“I’m just honored and blessed and just excited for the opportunity and just grateful that people in this room have faith in me to do it,” Roof said. “I’m going to miss spending my days with the people at West Fannin, but I look forward to spending my days with a whole new set of people.”
In November, Superintendent Dr. Michael Gwatney sent a letter to all faculty and staff explaining his goal to move the focus on STEM/STEAM and CTAE education from the school level to the district level.
He said, “Although we have done a nice job moving forward with STEM/STEAM education, the time has come to take it to the next level. I want us to raise the tide of this initiative in the FCSS at all levels and with all learners.To facilitate this vision, I will implement a leadership change for STEM/STEAM.
“The forthcoming CTAE update requires a retooling of our current leadership model. As a result, I am removing CTAE leadership from under the umbrella of FCHS and promoting the position to the district level. To be truly effective, both STEM/STEAM and CTAE must be led from a district position that works with all schools and all P-12 students.”
According to Gwatney, there will be a major update to Georgia’s CTAE program in the near future. This update will require the system to deliver the CTAE program to every grade level rather than just the high school grades.
Upon discovery of the upcoming changes, current FCHS CTAE Director Patricia DuBois requested to focus on her work-based learning and youth apprenticeship students and assume the dual enrollment functions previously assigned to Heather Collis, who will be taking over for Theresa “T.C.” Dillard as Assistant Principal at the high school.
“I’ve had nine wonderful years, but as Dr. Gwatney said, I want to work with the students and I feel like where I’m going is the best place for me because as work-based learning and also duel enrollment, I’m preparing our students for that transition because our students are going into the workforce, college or the military,” DuBois said. “I’m in a wonderful position to help those students make those decisions.”
Gwatney applauded the work DuBois has done with the high school’s CTAE program stating, “For nine years, CTAE Director Patricia DuBois has been performing CTAE leadership duties; she has also been supervising work-based learning and youth apprenticeship students at FCHS. Ms. DuBois has done an outstanding job with these different roles that comprise her job.”