Joseph Dean has been named principal for the Butler County Magnet School, scheduled to open in August of this year.

Dean currently serves as principal for Georgiana High School.

The Board of Education approved the measure during its monthly meeting on Thursday.

“He’s (Dean) an accomplished administrator,” said Superintendent Mike Looney. “We have all the confidence in the world in Mr. Dean and know he’s going to lead us to great things at the Butler County Magnet School.”

Dean was named principal at Georgiana High School in 2006. He is originally from Monroeville and is a graduate of Alabama State University.

“I tell you I’m just numb today,” said Dean on Friday. “Sometimes you may think all the work you’re doing is in vain, but just to have the kids, the faculty and parents come up to me today and congratulate me, it’s a humbling experience. This town has been good to me.”

Dean is entering his fourteenth year in education. Before becoming principal at Georgiana, he served as assistant principal at Greenville High School.

As administrator of the district’s newest school, Dean will be tasked with directing K-12 traditional classes as well as the school’s magnet programs.

“I really take it as a challenge,” he said. “The building itself is a beautiful facility, but there is a lot of work still to be done. The administration, the faculty, the parents and the students…we are going to have to give of ourselves. We can’t go in with a ‘salad bowl’ mentality, where everybody’s just sort of thrown in, doing there own thing. We’ve got to become a melting pot, where everybody works together.”

The magnet school consolidates Georgiana High School and Robert L. Austin Elementary School.

“The biggest hurdle is out of the way,” said Looney of Dean being named principal. “Now we can start putting the rest of the pieces of the puzzle in place.”