State Education Commissioner Visits DCHS

Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen visited DeKalb County High School Wednesday as part of her “Classroom Chronicles” tour across the state.
The focus of the tour is to meet with students to gather their perspectives on education. “This year our focus is on students and student voices and hearing from them around their readiness for post secondary, for career, and learning from them about what can we do better as a state to make sure we’re supporting our schools and our local districts better in post secondary readiness, advanced courses, and making sure they have the rigor that they need and that the cultures in our high schools are moving toward those high expectations,” Commissioner McQueen told WJLE.
“DeKalb County is part of my opportunity today to hear from students and tour guides as they walked us into classrooms and they talked to me about their dreams and goals and where they are going to go and how DeKalb County has prepared them in that direction,” Commissioner McQueen added.
“Commissioner McQueen is someone who is always willing to listen to counties and schools. I believe she has truly at heart a concern for our students and for our school districts and I believe she wants to hear what our concerns are to help better prepare our students,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.
“I love the way she interacted with students when she went into the classroom. She asked them questions and asked about what they were doing. She was very complimentary of all the hands on activities and problem solving we were doing in the classrooms. We’re proud of that and she is welcome anytime,” said DCHS Principal Kathy Bryant.
Commissioner McQueen visited the dual enrollment students in the Distance Learning Lab, the AP Calculus Class of Andrew Dixon, the STEM/Building Trades Class of Gary Caplinger and Brad Leach, the Culinary Arts Class of Linda Parris, and the Biology Class of Mary Anne Carpenter.
TOP Photo: State Representative Mark Pody, DeKalb Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, DCHS Principal Kathy Bryant, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen, DCHS Senior Class President Madison Butler, Miss DCHS Rachel Fuson, Mr. DCHS Eli Cross, Supervisor of Instruction for 7th through 12th grade Lisa Cripps, and Donna Emmons, RTI2 coordinator and Instructional Coach at DCHS.