Dana Ballou is the new principal of Northside Elementary School, beginning immediately, and retiring East Coweta High School Principal Kirk Stallings will be succeeded next year by East Coweta Middle School Principal Derek Pitts.

Both moves were approved by the Coweta County Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday. Superintendent Blake Bass recommended both positions to the board following interviews and consultation with School Council members at both schools.

Derek Pitts is a 20-year educator who earned his B.S. in health, PE and science at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1987, his Masters in Administration from Georgia State University in 1993 and his Ed.S from Troy State University in 1998. He began his career as a teacher in 1987 at East Coweta High School and then later as a middle school teacher before becoming an assistant principal at East Coweta Middle and Northgate Middle Schools.

He worked in Haralson County and Enterprise, Ala., schools for three years before returning to Coweta County as the Assistant Principal at East Coweta High School. He served as Elm Street Elementary’s principal in 2003-04, and has served as East Coweta Middle School Principal since 2004.

Kirk Stallings is a 35-year educator who has served for five years as principal of East Coweta High School. He came to the post in 2001, after serving for two years as principal of Smokey Road Middle School and as principal of Central Middle School before it the middle school was moved to Smokey Road. Stallings began his career in education in 1971, and came to Coweta County Schools as a teacher in 1982 before moving to administrative positions in 1995.

Dana Ballou is a 15-year educator who earned her B.S. in education from the University of Georgia in 1990, her master’s in early childhood education from the State University of West Georgia in 1993 and her Ed.S from West Georgia in 1995. She was certified in administration in 2001.

She began as a teacher at Elm Street Elementary in 1991, and became lead teacher of Northside Elementary in 1998. Ballou has served as Northside’s assistant principal since 2002. Ballou assumes the vacant Northside principalship immediately.

The Coweta school system has posted the positions of Northside assistant principal and East Coweta Middle School principal to fill positions being vacated by Ballou and Pitts.

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