June 3, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
After 27 years as an educator in four different counties, Bruce Curtis is coming home to work for the school district where it all began for him.
Starting July 1, Curtis will officially become the next principal at DeKalb County High School.
Although it is a coming home for him career wise, Curtis has actually never left DeKalb County as a resident. He was born and raised here and educated in the local school system. But for 21 years Curtis has worked for the Metro Nashville Public Schools, including the last 11 years as Director of Discipline, making the weekday 130 mile round trip from Smithville to Davidson County. While he has enjoyed his job, Curtis longed for a chance to work closer to home and for him that opportunity came after Randy Jennings stepped down as Principal at DeKalb County High School. Curtis applied and was interviewed for the job and later got the call from Director of Schools Patrick Cripps naming him principal.
“Excited” pretty much sums up how Curtis feels.
“I am very excited and looking forward to being back at home working with the students here who live in the same county I am in and for me not having to drive a 130 mile round trip to Nashville every day. Now I get to drive two and a half miles to work,” Curtis told WJLE.
Curtis graduated from DCHS in 1984. From there he went to MTSU where he earned his BS degree in Health and Physical Education and then furthered his education at Tennessee Tech obtaining a Masters and Ed.S degree.
Curtis’ first teaching job came at DeKalb West School in 1992 where he taught 5th to 8th grade History for one year before taking a job at Cannon County High School to teach Biology and Health. He was also the head baseball coach and an assistant football coach for the Lions.
In the mid 90’s Curtis returned to the DeKalb County School District working as a physical education teacher for two years at Smithville Elementary School. After taking a year off, Curtis returned to the classroom at Monterey High School in Putnam County teaching Biology. He also served as an assistant football coach for the Wildcats.
In 2000 Curtis joined the Metro Nashville Public School system and for the last 11 years has been the Director of Discipline there. “I worked with students who were expelled or remanded to the alternative school. That was my primary job,” said Curtis.
Although its been several years since he worked here, the DeKalb County School district is familiar territory for Curtis.
“I have always been around the school system here. I hear people fuss about it but then I see a lot of doctors, lawyers, nurses, and people in other fields coming out of our school system so we have to be doing something right. I am not a person who will jump in and change everything from the start. I want to see what works, build off that, and change things as needed. I am not big in bringing in everything new because if things work why change them,” said Curtis.
“I want to thank Director Cripps for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to working with him as well as the school board, teachers, and the other administrators. I have known Mr. Cripps all his life. He is a good guy. We also have great educators in DeKalb County. I am glad to be coming home to work with them again,” said Curtis.
Bruce is married to Amy Curtis and has two grown children Kealah, who works for the school district as a Physical Therapy Assistant, and Julia who is in nursing school at Tennessee Tech.
Curtis is the 13th principal at DCHS since 1963. His predecessors are Amon Snyder, Jim Butler, Tucker Hendrix, Ernest Ray, Dr. Charles Collier, Larry Johnson, Dr. Barry Roberts, Weldon Parkinson, Kathy Hendrix, Patrick Cripps, Dr. Kathy Bryant, and Randy Jennings.