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Elm Street Principal Dr. Julie Raschen was
named the new Principal of Brooks Elementary School, when that
school opens for the 2009-10 school year. The Coweta County Board of Education approved Raschen’s new position at their February 10 Board meeting. Raschen – who has taught for 16 years in the Coweta County School System – has served as Elm Street Elementary School’s Principal since 2005. Brooks Elementary School – Coweta’s 19th Elementary School – is currently under construction on Jim Starr Road in northern Coweta County. “I am very excited about Brooks Elementary,” said Raschen, after her new position was announced to the school system and her staff at Elm Street on Wednesday. “It’s a great opportunity for the teachers and the parents who will be there next year, because what we do in those first couple of years will set traditions for the school.” Raschen said that it will be hard to leave Elm Street. “We’ve come together as a true community at this school, so leaving it is bittersweet.” She added that she is looking forward to working with the families at Brooks next year. “I am looking forward to meeting each one and getting to know the parents and their children, and I am looking forward to all of us creating the best school in the district.” Raschen will complete the current school year at Elm Street and will officially become principal of Brooks in July, 2009. She will oversee staffing and planning for the new school immediately, however. “My first focus will stay on Elm Street. But I imagine I’ll have some late nights, because at the same time we’re going to be getting Brooks ready to open,” she said. Brooks will open in August, 2009. In January, the Board of Education approved new elementary school lines for Brooks and surrounding elementary schools. Those districts were recommended in January to the Board by a parent redistricting committee composed of parents from Arnco-Sargent, Northside, Arbor Springs and Canongate Elementary Schools. The new district lines of those four elementary schools and for Brooks will go into affect in the new school year beginning in July of 2009. The Board of Education approved one last detail of the redistricting at their February 10 Board meeting. The Board voted to approve the optional ‘grandfathering’ of next year’s 5th grade students - this year’s 4th graders – who will be affected by redistricting next year. That means that parents wish to leave those students at their current school can do so if they provide transportation to and from school. The Board’s grandfathering action applies only to next year’s fifth graders, and not to their siblings. Brooks’ new principal, Julie Raschen, began teaching in the Coweta County School System during the 1993-94 school year, as a 1st grade teacher at White Oak Elementary School. She taught for ten years at White Oak as a 1st and 4th grade teacher. Raschen was named the Assistant Principal of Elm Street in 2003, and then became principal of the Newnan school in 2005. Raschen earned her Bachelors degree in education from Georgia Southern University in 1992, her Masters in Leadership at the University of West Georgia in 2002, her Specialists degree from Sanford University in 2004, and her Doctorate in Education Leadership from Sanford University 2007. She is married to David Raschen and the couple has two children - David Allen, who is an 8th grader at Evans Middle, and Casey, who is a 3rd grader at Elm Street.  Dr. Julie Raschen – Principal of Elm Street Elementary School – will take over as principal of Brooks Elementary School when the northern Coweta County school opens next school year. |