Guilford County Schools (GCS) announced the appointment of the principal for The STEM Early College at N.C. A&T, which will open this August with a class of 50 freshmen. The school will be served by Stacey Alston, who comes to GCS from Wake County Public Schools. His appointment begins on May 1.

Alston earned his bachelor’s in business education from N.C. A&T in 1999. He also holds a master of school administration from North Carolina Central University.

Since 2007, Alston has served as an assistant principal at Knightdale High where he assisted in transitioning the school from a traditional school to one with a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) focus. Alston assisted in implementing green and sustainable energy courses where students could earn their certification to install solar panels. In addition, he helped increase the school’s overall proficiency from 50.4 percent to 74.9 percent during a four-year period.

Before Wake County, he spent eight years with Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools as a business teacher and testing coordinator. He also served as a baseball coach for both the varsity and junior varsity teams. During the 2005-06 school year he was named the Career & Technical Education Teacher of the Year.

The STEM Early College at N.C. A&T will be the second GCS high school located on the campus of A&T. The university already houses The Middle College at A&T, one of the district's two successful, single-gender programs, which serves about 120 young men.

As an early college, the new school will offer students the opportunity to graduate high school with 60 hours of college credit, transferable to most public and private colleges and universities. Students will take advanced high school classes in grades 9 and 10, followed by two years of college classes in grades 11 and 12.