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The Coweta County Board of Education has
named Dr. Karen Barker as the school system’s new Director of
Elementary Curriculum. Barker – who is currently the Principal of Arnco-Sargent Elementary School – will succeed Nancy Royal, who is retiring at the end of March after 30 years in education. Royal has served as Elementary Curriculum Director since July, 2005. A Coweta County native, Royal began her career in 1970 at Jo Wells Elementary school in Hapeville, and then as a Kindergarten teacher at Columbia Drive Baptist Church in Decatur, Indian Creek Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, and Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain. She returned to Coweta county to teach at Elm Street Elementary School from 1980 to 1996 as a first grade and then as a Kindergarten teacher. In 1996, Royal became Lead Teacher at Ruth Hill Elementary School, and then served as Principal of Ruth Hill from 1999 to 2003. In 2003 she became Coweta County School’s Director of Federal Programs, working with Title I and similar programs. Royal was chosen as both the Elm Street and Coweta County’s Teacher of the Year in 1991, and then as the 1993 Georgia Teacher of the Year. Among other honors, Royal was selected as a 1989 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Honor Teacher, received the 1992 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching, and was a 1995 Milken National Educator Award Recipient. Barker, like Royal, is a Coweta native, and has served as Arnco-Sargeant’s principal since 2001. Barker earned her Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Education from Shorter College in 1990. She earned her Masters and Educational Leadership degrees from the State University of West Georgia, and her Doctorate from Nova University in 2006. She began her career as a first grade teacher at White Oak Elementary Schools, and later taught at Canongate and Jefferson Parkway Elementary Schools. She served as the Lead Teacher and then Assistant Principal at Poplar Road Elementary School before assuming the principalship at Arnco-Sargent. The school was named a 2006 Georgia School of Excellence for the 8th Congressional District in 2006. Barker’s new position will create a vacancy at Arnco-Sargeant. Western Elementary Principal Michael Cutchen has also announced that he will retire at the end of this school year. The Coweta County School System has already begun a search to fill the two vacancies. Testing and School Improvement Director Connie Davis – who is also a former Coweta County teacher and principal – has also announced that she is retiring at the end of the current school year, in June.  Dr. Karen Barker, above, left, has been named the Coweta County School System’s new Director of Elementary Curriculum, and will succeed Nancy Royal, center, who is retiring at the end of March. At right is Wayne Outlaw, who serves as the school system’s Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum. |