An elementary school in south Forsyth will have to say goodbye to its first and only principal after this school year.

Tracey Smith was named to the top position at Brookwood Elementary School this week during a Forysth County Board of Education executive session, succeeding Kathie Braswell, who announced her retirement.

“Tracey came to the district in 2000 as a teacher at Cumming Elementary. She previously taught for two years in Valdosta City and did a brief stint in the private sector as a project consultant and trainer,” said Cindy Salloum, associate superintendent of human resources and legal services for the school system.

She has a degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in reading education from Valdosta State University. She also earned a second master’s degree in leadership from the University of Georgia and an education specialist degree from Piedmont University.

Smith will transfer from Mashburn Elementary, where she has served as principal since 2009. She started at Mashburn the year before that as an assistant principal after taking her first role in that position at Chattahoochee Elementary in 2005.

Braswell will end her teaching career after 40 years, which took her from being a teacher in Pennsylvania and New York from 1977-80 to teaching at Big Creek Elementary from 1986 until 2000, when she was assigned as a quality work facilitator at the school.

In 2002, she was appointed as assistant principal at Mashburn and was named principal there in 2006 before transferring to open Brookwood in 2009.