Director of Schools Mark Willoughby has announced that Patrick Cripps has been named principal at DCHS.
Cripps, who has served as assistant principal at DCHS for the past seven years, succeeds retiring principal Kathy Hendrix. Prior to his role as assistant principal, Cripps was guidance counselor at the high school for five years.
A graduate of DCHS, Cripps earned his BS in psychology at Tennessee Tech in 1995. Four years later, he received a degree in pre-K through 12 school counseling from Tech. In 2004, Cripps earned an Eds degree in instructional leadership, also at Tennessee Tech.
Cripps, in an interview with WJLE, said although he is well acquainted with the school, the students, and staff, his role now will be very different. “As an assistant, I dealt mostly with the discipline. Now, I will have greater responsibilities. I will be dealing more with academics and working with teachers whereas before I was working more closely with students,” said Cripps.
“I’m looking forward to getting school started and getting back at it,” he said. “We’re developing the schedule right now and we’re hiring several new teachers. We had several to retire and those teachers are going to be missed but we’re looking forward to our new teachers coming in,” said Cripps.
Son of Gene and the late Brenda Cripps, Patrick is married to the former Amy Williams and they have three children, 12 year old Callie Ryann, seven year old Zoe Potter, and one year old Brody John Cripps. Cripps’ sister, Michelle Burklow, is the Supervisor of Instruction for pre-K to sixth grade in the local school system.
Cripps becomes the 10th principal at DCHS since 1963. His predecessors included Amon Snyder, Jim Butler, Tucker Hendrix, Ernest Ray, Dr. Charles Collier, Larry Johnson, Dr. Barry Roberts, Weldon Parkinson, and Kathy Hendrix.
Director Willoughby said he appreciates the work former principal Kathy Hendrix did at the high school and he is looking forward to working with Cripps. “Kathy Hendrix did a great job at the high school and Patrick Cripps will do a great job. He has been interviewing and recommending people for hiring. He has got a real good staff there and I am real excited about the things that are going to happen and the changes that he is going to implement. He is already doing a great job, although he doesn’t officially really start until July 1. Patrick has energy and is excited about the high school being his school and the fact that he is there for DeKalb County children that are coming on up,” said Willoughby.
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Assistant principal David Gash will remain part of the administration team at DCHS and Kathy Bryant will be coming to the high school from DeKalb Middle School to fill the other assistant principal position. “Our assistant will be Kathy Bryant,” said Willoughby. “She is moving from DeKalb Middle School to the high school. She is going to be working mainly with the curriculum, analyzing and giving details and looking at some areas that we can improve on and some areas that we can strengthen even more. She will be helping to develop some improvement plans for us in areas that we would like to be making higher grades. She is going to be a real plus to that staff. She dealt with the curriculum at the middle school and was very successful there and she will also be successful at DeKalb County High School,” he said.
“Mr. Gash will be dealing more with discipline than curriculum,” said Willoughby.
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