West Elementary gets new assistant principal, adds math coach

RUSSELLVILLE Gayla Mills has been named the new assistant principal for West Elementary School. She has been employed at West Elementary for 29 years and will start her 30th year soon.

She previously taught third grade (when it was still taught at West — it has since moved to Russellville Elementary). She also taught second grade at West Elementary, as well as reading and math intervention and in-school suspension.

“I’m looking forward to meeting all the children and helping them and meeting the parents,” Mills said. “I appreciate Mrs. Stanford for giving me this opportunity to work with the kids, the parents, the community and our board. After 29 years, I thought it was about time to shake things up and do something different.”

Mills noted she is looking forward to taking on the role. “There’s plenty of challenges here, and we have the best elementary school ever,” she said.

“I just want to work with Mrs. Stanford and for us to do the best possible and have our scores go up from what they are — which, I think they’re pretty good already,” Mills added. “I want to make the children feel safe and work with our wonderful staff.

I think we will be heavily working on math, literacy and reading.”

Principal Alicia Stanford said Mills is bringing a lot of education experience to the table.

“She’s got a depth of knowledge, and I’m looking forward to us working together collectively to improve our school for our staff and our students,” Stanford said.

The former assistant principal, Suzanne Glass, held that role for three years. She is taking on a newly created position at West Elementary, that of math coach.

Stanford said Glass did a wonderful job as assistant principal and noted she is thankful Glass will continue being a part of the school. Glass has also taught math at Russellville Elementary and Russellville Middle School.

“She comes with a lot of experience and knowledge when it comes to math,” Stanford said. “In her role as assistant principal, I delegated the math to her and I took over the reading, so she has had a lot of opportunity to look at the standards from kindergarten through second grade.”

Stanford said Glass is “ready to tackle this” and work side by side with the teachers.

“We’re very excited to see the outcomes that are going to take place from her being in this position,” Stanford added. “As math coach, she will do some coteaching, working side-byside with our teachers and kids. They’ll talk about lessons, what worked, what didn’t and ways to improve instruction, so we are meeting the needs of all students.”

Glass said she loved her time as assistant principal, especially building relationships with the parents, students and teachers.

“Before becoming assistant principal at West Elementary, I taught fifth grade math at Russellville Elementary and I just fell in love with math. This position just fell in my lap,” she explained.

She said it’s a “totally natural” move for her.

“I’ve always had a passion for math, and I’ve already built the relationships with the teachers, so now we can go in, and I can do my coaching and be in the classroom with children again. It’s just wonderful.”

Glass said it’s “just so rewarding when that light bulb goes off — when you can show the concrete and help the children build math stamina each year.”

Glass has worked in Russellville City Schools for her entire 17-year career.