East Coweta High School Assistant Principal Evan Horton is about to make a move. He has been appointed to become the school principal with the retirement of ECHS principal and long-time educator Rick Waggoner.
Coweta County School System spokesman Dean Jackson last week said Horton will serve as ECHS’s principal beginning in July and will succeed Waggoner who is retiring after a career in education that spanned 41 years.
Horton is a 14-year educator and a native of Birmingham, Alabama, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Education and Human Performance Studies from the University of Alabama in 1998, his Master of Public Administration from Troy State University in 2005, a Leadership Certification from the State University of West Georgia in 2006 and an Education Specialist in Administration from Georgia College and State University in 2009.
Waggoner was appointed East Coweta High School’s Principal in 2008, after serving as the principal at Arnall Middle School for three years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Math and Physics Education from Marshall University in Huntington, W.V, and earned a Masters in Public Administration and an Educational Specialist in Administration, also from Marshall, and his doctorate from Clayton College of Natural Health, Jackson said.
Waggoner began teaching in 1972 at Fairland High School in Ohio, and later served as principal of South Point Middle School. He went on to serve as Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent of Schools in South Point, Ohio. Upon retirement from the South Point school system, he began serving as a Coweta County assistant principal in 2001, at Madras Middle School, said Jackson.
Waggoner announced to the staff of East Coweta in April that he was retiring from his long and accomplished career. “I’ve really enjoyed serving at East Coweta High School,” said Waggoner. “I feel the pride and positive climate at the school is just tremendous. We have built good communications and relationships with students, parents and staff, and I am proud to have been a part of that.”
Waggoner’s comments then turned to his assistant principal.
“I know those traditions will continue as Evan takes over,” said Waggoner. “Evan Horton is a great administrator, with a lot of energy, and he has been an integral part of EC’s administrative team for six years. He knows the school very well. I know with his leadership the school will continue to excel in academics, in athletics and student achievement.”
Jackson said Horton began teaching in 1998 at Maxwell Elementary School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He moved in 1999 to Coweta County and taught Civics, U.S. and World History at Newnan High School and served as a NHS Cougar basketball, baseball and cross country coach. In 2000 he moved to Northgate High School, where he taught Civics, World History and Driver’s Education. He also served as a Northgate Viking assistant football coach, head basketball coach, and assistant baseball coach and served as Northgate’s assistant athletic director.
Horton became an assistant principal at East Coweta High School in 2006, and became the athletic director for the ECHS Indian’s athletics programs in 2008.
Horton is the second of East Coweta’s administrative staff to be named to a principalship next year. ECHS Assistant Principal Schwanda Jackson was named East Coweta Middle School’s principal for next year, to replace retiring Principal Nancy Cook.
