After a thorough four-month-long search for Central’s new principal and the official announcement of Mr. Joe Williams’ retirement, Dr. Montia Gardner has officially been appointed to the new position. Beginning the 2025-2026 school year, the associate principal will be the new face of Central High School.
“I’ve always sought to move forward in my professional career,” said Gardner on her thoughts on taking on the esteemed position. “Being principal was my next step.”
Gardner’s former position as Associate Principal played a significant role in her decision to be principal, offering her the perspective of someone who can advocate for the voices of students and staff alike. “I really want people to feel comfortable and trust that I will do what is in the best interest of students and staff, so right now, I am just trying to find ways to connect with students, so that people won’t have to worry about the shift and the change too much.”
With ideas of enhancing the aesthetics of the school and creating stronger student-staff dynamics, Gardner seeks out many facets of improvement for the 2025-2026 school year that make Central a more welcoming environment for educators and students alike. “I’m loving what the art department is doing right now in putting some color and pictures- and connecting their work to the empty spaces we have. I would like to see that in a more permanent way and have our student artists do more murals to make it more inviting for our student population.”
Furthering her focus on student-specific equal opportunities, Gardner states she has “a very intentional focus on our MLL [Multilingual Learner] population, making sure they have access to opportunities to succeed and that we work with them to meet them where they are, and to support their growth,” as another large area of focus she plans for is the accommodation and representation of Central students, whether that ranges from the enhanced aid of Central’s multilingual community to the efforts to make students feel themselves represented both in and outside the classroom., “I am moving to a class for teachers that teaches them conversational Spanish because I think it would be great if our teachers could connect with our MLL students more. Then, possibly move to the other languages that we have right now represented- like French, Pashto, and Arabic.”
A further aspect of Gardner’s focus is offering respect to the vast amount of religious practicing students. “I am also interested in creating a meditation space that some of our Islamic students can use as prayer spaces during the day. Oftentimes, they use our offices and it would be great for them to have a space that directly relates to their need for prayer during the day, as well as a space for other students who have a prayer life to come and offer prayers if they’d like to, for whatever their religious background is.”
As for aspects that Garder is most excited about, she states that “despite the position being tough: having fun, celebrating our wins, celebrating the goals that we set, and coming up with ways to incorporate ourselves in the community,” are things she is looking most forward to.
“One thing that Dr. Gardner, even in her Associate Principal role, has done is really worked on relationship dynamics with students,” says Williams, expressing his excitement for Gardner’s new position. “She has worked to continue building relationships with students by providing interventions, support, and guidance to them. So, I hope that is something she can keep up with.”
