Rosa Rebecca Duncan

Assistant Principal

Tellico Plains Elementary School

     I was born in Madisonville, Tennessee, but I spent most of my childhood in Alcoa, Blount County.  At the age of 14, my family returned to Monroe County, and I graduated from Vonore High School in 1978.  The day after graduation from high school, I went to work at Tellico Industries before transferring to Valley Bank as a teller.  In 1980 I married my high school sweetheart, Dennis Duncan, on May 2nd.   Dennis and I have two biological children, Alan and Amy, and two adopted children from Haiti, Chedeline, and Sony.  Alan and Hannah live in East Knoxville with our two granddaughters, Addie and Haven.  Alan is a placement coordinator for Youth Villages and Hannah is a special education teacher at Gibbs Elementary.  Amy and Nathan live in Abingdon, VA after returning from Africa in 2020, where they served as medical missionaries in Kenya at Chogoria Hospital.  Amy is a general surgeon while Nathan is a nurse practitioner with his doctorate to teach, and they both have hearts to serve.  Chedeline graduated from TPHS in 2021 and is working toward a nursing career.  Sony continues at TPHS.  He is active as a football Bear, with the ambition to earn his pilot's license.    

     My alma maters for earning my teaching degree are Hiwassee College (1991-1993) and Maryville College (1993-1995).  My teaching career started in August 1995 as a kindergarten teacher at Vonore Elementary School.  In August 2001, I finished my master's degree in Instructional Leadership at Tennessee Technological University and became the assistant principal, and in January 2002, I became the principal of Vonore Elementary School.  I completed my Ed. Specialist degree with TTU in 2003. 

     After serving in administration for 7 years, I left Vonore Elementary and returned to the classroom at Madisonville Intermediate School.  Two years later, I applied and was hired to fill a position as a reading specialist at Tellico Plains Junior High School, and I remained in that position for 9 years.  During the academic year of 2018-2019, I served as a teacher and assistant principal at Monroe County Alternative School, starting up the first elementary classroom for our county's alternative education program.  In August 2019, I returned to Tellico as the RTI leader at Tellico Elementary School. 

     It has been a joy to work with students at all grade levels over the years, and I am thrilled to come full circle and work with elementary students again.  I look forward to growing as an educator and person each year.  It was a joy to work in administration at TPES, first with Mrs. Jones as her assistant principal and now with Dr. Sheryl Debity.  TPES IS AN AWESOME SCHOOL!!!!!  We have wonderful students, support staff, and teachers, and the adventures are limitless!  TPES--where adventure awaits!  #cubsstrongalldaylong

Our students are worth all of the efforts we can muster on their behalf!  #allinforstudents