Students and faculty at two Whitfield County high schools will see some new faces for the 2024-25 school year.
At a recent Whitfield County Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Mike Ewton announced two new principals who will begin in their roles this fall.
“I’d like to introduce to you our new principals that were just approved for Coahulla Creek High School and Southeast (Whitfield) High School,” Ewton said. “For Coahulla Creek, we have a familiar face in Dr. Belinda Sloan.”
Sloan, who currently is the principal at New Hope Middle School, will be Coahulla Creek High School’s third principal. Sloan will be taking over for Tracy Mardis, who will be retiring at the end of the current school year.
“For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been at New Hope Middle School for the last eight years and I’m excited about this new role,” Sloan said. “Three of my children so far have graduated from Coahulla Creek, so I’ve been a Colt fan for a little while now. I’m ready for the next chapter.”
Ewton said he is “looking forward to” seeing Sloan at the high school.
The new principal of Southeast Whitfield High School, Matthew Mederios, was also present at the meeting.
Although this will be his first role within the Whitfield County Schools system, Mederios is no stranger to the position in the area, having served as the principal of The Dalton Academy within Dalton Public Schools for the last four years.
Southeast Whitfield’s current principal Denise Pendley will be moving into the school system’s director of high school curriculum position this fall after the retirement of Tom Appelman.
“I just want to say that I’m very grateful for Dr. Ewton and his team for placing his faith and trust in my leadership abilities,” Mederios said. “I look forward to serving as the next principal at Southeast and I am very excited to be back at a large, comprehensive high school as a principal. As a resident here in Whitfield County, I look forward to serving alongside the stakeholders to ensure that we’re maximizing educational outcomes for all of our students.”
Mederios said his two children will also be making the move to the Whitfield County Schools system.
“My son is going to be a sophomore student at Coahulla Creek next year and my daughter will be a sixth-grader at North Whitfield Middle School,” he said. “My wife and I are super excited about that transition for our own kids and I’m looking forward to working with each of you.”
Mederios said he has been in education for 25 years, with more than 21 of those in Florida.
“I was a career changer,” he said. “I studied sports medicine in undergraduate school. I felt that I served a great purpose working with high school students and just felt called to serve as a teacher and a coach.”
Mederios said he answered that call by serving as a health and personal education teacher, a varsity baseball coach and a varsity boys basketball coach for seven-and-a-half years, as well as a high school instructional literacy coach.
“Then I landed in an assistant principal for curriculum role at the high school level for five years and transitioned into a high school principal role in Florida,” he said. “I served as a high school principal for five years and a middle school principal for three-and-a-half years down in Southwest Florida.”
Mederios said he worked in Florida’s Lee County Schools system for 18 years and Collier County Schools for three-and-a-half years before moving to Dalton in July 2020, where he was involved in opening up The Dalton Academy, which has students in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
“I had the opportunity to join with The Dalton Academy and it’s been a great experience opening up a brand new school and getting the school running from the ground up,” Mederios said. “It’s great to have this opportunity to serve here in Whitfield County. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about the team here and the family-like culture that exists. That’s something that’s super important to me that I crave, so I’m just really thankful and grateful.”
Also during the meeting, Ewton announced that current Westside Elementary School Principal Sunshine Narramore will be moving to the elementary school curriculum director role for the school system. Lisa Jones, the current elementary school curriculum director, is retiring in May.
“Congratulations to all of you,” Ewton said. “I’m excited for things moving forward.”