The Demopolis City Schools Board of Education voted Monday night to add a career technical education principal at Demopolis High School.

The addition, which will go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year, is the latest step in the rapidly-changing landscape of technical education in Marengo County.

The decision to add the position comes just weeks after the consortia that made up the Marengo County Technology Center dissolved, leading to the subsequent closure of the facility.

“Since MCTC has dissolved, we have earned a full career tech director unit for the 2012-2013 year,” Demopolis City Schools Supertintendent Dr. Al Griffin said. “We’re going to put an assistant principal at the high school who is going to oversee career tech and help oversee academics, discipline and operations.”

While it is unclear how long the school will retain the unit, Griffin expressed his hope that the assistant principalship becomes a permanent fixture at DHS.

“We’re going to wait until we see a budget for Fiscal Year 2014 before we make a decision on the longevity of this position,” Griffin said. “We certainly hope this is something we can have long term. We’re excited about this position and the opportunities it creates.”

Demopolis High currently offers technical education classes in agriculture, health science, business marketing and insurance services among others. The school will add industrial maintenance in the near future.

Other personnel action items on Monday’s agenda saw the board vote to hire Ashley Brock for a science teacher position at Demopolis Middle School and Drew Luker for a social science spot at DMS. The board transferred Sherri McAlpine from a math slot at Demopolis High to a math spot at DMS and hired Ali Hathcock as a DMS math teacher before transferring her to DHS.

The board also voted to open a sixth grade English teacher position vacated by Dana Freeman after she was reassigned from the DMS slot to an ARI Coach position for the state department of education.