The head of a Bucks County vocational-technical school has been named director of Lancaster County Career and Technology Center.

David Warren, administrative director of Upper Bucks County Vocational Technical School, will take the reins of the CTC in late January or early February.

His appointment will be finalized at the CTC board's Dec. 8 meeting, board chairman Tom O'Brien said.

Warren will replace Michael Curly, who retired Oct. 24 after serving 28 years with the CTC, including six as director.

Since October, Jon Rednack has been serving as interim director.

"I'm real excited," Warren said of his appointment. "(CTC) has a reputation for being a high-quality school known for being innovative ... and they're not afraid to try things to make education better for students."

Warren, 48, said increasing student achievement was one of his main goals when he took the director's job at Upper Bucks four years ago.

Since then, he said, the school has "raised the achievement level of students dramatically by putting an emphasis on the rigor of the programs and the expectations."

Upper Bucks has increased its percentage of students scoring "advanced" on occupational competency tests from 40 percent in 2004 to nearly 70 percent in 2008 — "way above the national average," Warren said.

It also has increased the number of vo-tech graduates continuing their education beyond high school from 35 percent to more than 50 percent, he said.

And students in every program can now earn college credits through articulation agreements with area colleges.

That track record impressed the CTC board, which spent nearly 11 months searching for a new director.

"We really feel he's got a lot of vision," O'Brien said of Warren. "He has the ability to not only keep us as one of the best schools ... but to take us to the next level.

"We feel we got the right person at the right time."

Warren is coming from a system that is far smaller and structured differently than Lancaster County CTC.

Upper Bucks has one campus and about 700 secondary students who come from three local high schools. CTC has three campuses and enrolls 1,600 students from 16 high schools.

Upper Bucks students attend vo-tech classes on a part-time basis for four years, while CTC students attend classes full-time in their senior year.

But both school systems have similar curricula, offering traditional trades-based instruction in construction, culinary arts, cosmetology, automotive repair and other fields and more technical programs.

Both also offer adult education classes on a variety of topics.

Prior to serving as director at Upper Bucks, Warren worked five years as supervisor of vocational education at Bucks County Technical High School.

He previously worked five years as a protective services instructor at Franklin County Career and Technology Center.

Warren began teaching at the school while working as a police officer.

He served in a variety of law-enforcement positions, from patrolman to chief of police, from 1980 to 1999.

Warren, who is married and has two sons, said he's eager to take on new challenges in Lancaster.

"I'm looking forward to the move and excited about working with everybody in Lancaster County," he said.

He earns $112,000 a year in his current position and is expected to earn about $125,000 at the CTC.

The terms of his multi-year contract have yet to be finalized.

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com