The DeKalb County School system has been playing a game of musical assistant principals lately with an exit of one popular assistant principal, the reassignment of two, and a local teacher taking a new role.

DeKalb County School Superintendent Patrick Cripps announced last week that long-time DeKalb County High School Assistant Principal Thomas Cagle would be leaving DCHS for a new position as an assistant at Cookeville High School.

Cagle had previously served as a history teacher at DCHS, as well as an assistant coach with the Tigers football team. He had been a teacher for several years, beginning in Nashville at East Nashville Magnet Middle School. From there he moved back to Cookeville, where he taught at Jackson County for a couple of years.

Cripps said that taking over duties at DCHS will be Seth Willoughby, who had served as assistant principal at DeKalb West School.

“He’s just a great guy,” Cripps said. “He taught at the high school as a biology teacher; an assistant basketball coach; he was head coach for the tennis program for several years. He’s just a quality guy. He’s level headed, will make good decisions, and he’s a hard worker. It’s great to see him get into administration. Of course, he’s been at the West School for a couple of years. He’s going to be successful and I can see him doing great things.”

Willoughby is a former student and teacher at DCHS and is married to wife Mackenzie, with a son Baylon.

At the West School, Cindy Snow will be moving up to assume the assistant principal position.

Snow has been a teacher at DWS for over 16 years, and said the she feels very blessed to have spent all of those years at DeKalb West Elementary. During her first five years, she was a first-grade teacher, with the last 11 years serving as a fourth-grade teacher.  

Snow graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, and graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 2010 with a Master’s Degree in Instructional Leadership.

“She has taught at the West School for many years and coached basketball as well,” Cripps explained. “She’s just a fantastic teacher. Her test scores have always been really good, and she’s a hard worker. She demands a lot of her kids and has high expectations, and we want to set high expectations across the entire school. I have no doubt that she’s going to do great things as well.”

Josh Agee will be taking over as DeKalb Middle School assistant principal, moving up from an RTI (response to intervention) teaching position. Agee is taking over from Teresa Jones, who moved up as principal of DMS after Caleb Shehane transferred to Warren County for a position there. Agee has been teaching for over 23 years and was the longtime basketball coach at DMS.