Veteran principal leaves for a state position as high-quality leaders step up to fill new roles
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Robin Copp, principal at Ooltewah High School, has accepted a position with the new Partnership Network for school improvement with the Tennessee Department of Education and her departure will result in a shift of administrative positions in Hamilton County Schools.
With Copp’s departure, Angela Cass, principal of East Ridge Middle School, will make a move to high school administration and become the new principal at Ooltewah High. Cass has 20 years experience in Hamilton County Schools. She has two years experience in middle school administration and eight years in high school administration. Cass was an assistant principal at Soddy Daisy High School, Orchard Knob Middle School, and East Lake Academy. She was a 2015 graduate of the PEF Principal Leadership Academy. Cass taught social studies and language arts in the classroom and began her career as a teacher at Ooltewah Middle School. Cass has led East Ridge Middle to back-to-back Level 5 scores on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System and East Ridge was recently named a Reward school by the state for 2016-2017.
The leadership at East Ridge Middle will remain familiar to students and parents as Christy Drake moves from her role as assistant principal to interim principal. Drake has been assistant principal at East Ridge Middle since 2013, and she was a graduate of the 2017-2018 PEF Principal Leadership Academy and is also trained in McRel Balanced Leadership. In the classroom, Drake was an inclusion, resource, gifted, and advisory teacher at Loftis Middle, Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, and Tyner Academy.
Copp was in her third year as principal at Ooltewah High School and was the 2017-2018 Tennessee principal of the year. She had been a school administrator in Hamilton County Schools for the past 13 years with leadership stops at Signal Mountain Middle/High and Sale Creek Middle/High before taking over at Ooltewah. Copp was an assistant principal and teacher at Sale Creek Middle/High. She was a physical education teacher at Sale Creek, McConnell Elementary, East Side Elementary, Thrasher Elementary, and Ooltewah Intermediate School.