The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Fleming new MHS chief

By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com

The Fayette County Board of Education Monday night appointed Tracie Fleming to be the new principal at McIntosh High School, a position she will assume next week.

Fleming replaces Greg Stillions, named in November to be the first principal at Whitewater High School, which is slated to open this fall.

Superintendent John DeCotis recommended Fleming to the board, and the vote to confirm her appointment was unanimous. "I believe Mrs. Fleming to be the best overall candidate for the job," said DeCotis.

Fleming has spent more than 25 years as an educator in Georgia and is in her 18th year with the Fayette County School System. Her most recent position is as assistant principal at Starr's Mill High School, where she has been since the fall of 1998, the school's second year in existence.

"I'm just looking forward to working with the people at McIntosh, and seeing if I can make a difference with students, teachers, and parents," said Fleming.

Noting that the student and parent populations at McIntosh and Starr's Mill are similar (Starr's Mill was begun with mostly McIntosh students six years ago), she is looking forward to a smooth transition. Also, given her years of experience in the county school system, she will be working at McIntosh with some people she has worked with before at other schools.

There remains some work she must wrap up this week at Starr's Mill before her move. "I guess I'll be burning the midnight oil for a little while," she said.

It is not known at this time whether the school board, facing an ever-tightening budget, will replace Fleming at Starr's Mill as soon as possible or wait until summer.

Stillions' new position at Whitewater officially took effect Jan. 1, and he has been serving as the head of both schools until his replacement at McIntosh could be found, according to school system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.

Although construction of the Whitewater High facility will not be finished until the 2004-2005 academic year, the new school is slated to open at the beginning of the 2003-2004 scholastic year at the LaFayette Educational Center. The decision to open the school one year early was approved in August by the Board of Education in order to relieve overcrowding at Fayette County High and to allow rising ninth-graders bound for the new school the option of starting their high school years at Whitewater.