A couple of Hamilton County schools will have new faces in the principal’s office when school starts Monday.

Devota Barnes, a long-time principal at Sale Creek Middle/High School, retired from Hamilton County Schools after nearly 30 years on Dec. 31.

Current Assistant Principal Jeff Chastain assumed the lead reins for the school on Jan. 1.

Robin Copp will be the principal trainee.

Mr. Chastain was hired in 1979 and has worked as a social studies and economics teacher and coach. He became a principal trainee at Tyner Academy in 2003-2004 and moved to be an assistant principal at Sale Creek Middle/High in July 2005.

Ms. Copp joined Hamilton County in 1988 as a PE teacher at Ooltewah Elementary and worked at Thrasher Elementary, Soddy Elementary and McConnell Elementary until 2005-2006 when she became a Science/Biology teacher at Sale Creek Middle/High.

Ms. Barnes is joined in retirement by Juanita Del Pino, principal of Barger Academy. Ms. Del Pino, who has more than 30 years with Hamilton County schools, retired at the end of 2006 as well.

Caitlin Sims is the new principal of Barger Academy. She will start Feb. 5.

Ms. Sims comes to Hamilton County from Atlanta Public Schools where she has been principal of John Hope Elementary since 2004. Prior to being principal at John Hope Elementary, Ms. Sims was an instructional liaison specialist at Sutton Middle School in Atlanta and a teacher at Brown, Usher and Marshall Middle Schools, all in Atlanta.

Ms. Sims graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and received her Masters Degree in Education from Emory University in 2000. She received her administrative endorsement from Georgia State University in 2005.

Ms. Sims has facilitated the adoption, faculty training and implementation of the Middle Years Programme of International Baccalaureate at Sutton Middle School, received a $5,000 Laura Bush Library Award at Hope Elementary in 2006, hosted the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at Hope Elementary in 2006 and led Hope Elementary staff to receive district performance pay in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 for meeting rigorous school achievement targets.

Ms. Sims is the first principal to be selected with Dr. Scales’ new personnel selection process which has candidates complete a writing assessment based on a prompt, give a presentation to a panel on a specific topic related to the position they are applying for and then interview with the panel.

The top three candidates from this first round then interview with Dr. Scales, who makes the final decision.