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After a national search, North Cross School has picked a new headmaster from within its ranks.

Tim Seeley, who has worked at the private independent school in Roanoke County for the past seven years, will take over in July, becoming the 47-year-old institution’s eighth headmaster. His predecessor, Paul Stellato, announced he was leaving last fall to take over Princeton Day School in Princeton, N.J.

Seeley, currently the assistant headmaster and director of the upper school, said he isn’t planning major changes at the school but added that he would work to make it better-known around the region.

“My hope is that an ever greater part of Roanoke realizes what a great opportunity we are and a great education option we are,” he said. “North Cross has been around for over 40 years and I think we are much more diverse in student ability, in socioeconomic background of our students than people realize and have been for a while. I do think our reputation continues to be, at least in some circles, that that’s the school on the hill for rich kids. That hasn’t been true for a while and that is not what we’re trying to be.”

About 20 percent of the school’s 500 students are on financial aid, which helps with annual tuition that ranges from $6,575 to $11,250 a year. Roughly 15 percent of the student body is nonwhite. The school gives away between $550,000 and $600,000 in partial scholarships a year.

Seeley said that a major draw for the school is its flexibility in setting its own curriculum. As an independent school it is exempt from Virginia’s Standards of Learning requirements. It also is not connected to a church.

“We have complete freedom,” he said. “That means in a given year we can create a class because we think a group of kids needs it or we have interest or we have a teacher. We can change the way we teach something because we feel there’s a better way. We don’t have to go through a long bureaucratic process of getting something approved by another body.”

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Roanoke County schools’ engineering program has won a national award from the American School Boards Journal.

The school system was named a first-place winner in its category in the annual Magna Awards, which recognize innovative ways to address persistent problems in education.

The school system launched the engineering program in 2001 to counter a potential shortage of engineers nationwide. Local businesses donated equipment and the school system applied for grants.

The idea, according to Roger Johnson, director of career and technical education, is to offer the county’s students advanced math and science classes and internships in order to better prepare them for college classes and make them more attractive to prospective employers.

“Most people who have engineering degrees are hired by the fall of their senior year [in college]. It’s just unbelievable,” Johnson said.

So far, 28 students have graduated from the program and gone on to study engineering at Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute and other colleges and universities.

Johnson said the program, taught at the Arnold R. Burton Technology Center, enrolls roughly 20 students per class.

“They go through a screening,” he said. “They’ve got to be exceedingly good math students.”

They take Algebra II in ninth grade, pre-calculus in 10th, Advanced Placement calculus in 11th and an advanced calculus course in 12th grade, he said.

They also get an internship with local companies their senior year.

The program has proved so successful that it maintains a waiting list every year.

“The whole idea of these programs was to give more opportunities to our students,” said Roanoke County Superintendent Lorraine Lange.