FORT BENNING GA - Glenn Hughes, a former principal of Stowers Elementary for seven years, returns to Fort Benning as principal of E. A. White Elementary School this fall. He replaces Dr. Tommy Lee, who is retiring after nine years as principal at White.
Hughes previously worked as the Instructional Systems Specialist for the Area Service Center in Peachtree City, Ga. He also served as an Elementary Instructional Specialist for the Pacific area, based out of Okinawa.
His first love, however, after God and family, is being a principal, he said.
"I am absolutely thrilled to be here," said Hughes, who was named Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools principal of the year while at Stowers.
"I love student interaction, and I feel like I've been away from the student interaction long enough. I wanted to be back into a school where things are really happening," he said. "As a coordinator you can certainly lay the groundwork to make things happen for students and for teachers, but you can only stay away from the daily student interactions (so) long. Then it's time to get right back into a school. That's where it makes the difference."
The Columbus native and Phenix City resident started his career as a language arts teacher in Muscogee County in 1979, but after two years, transitioned to Wilson Elementary on post. He served as the assistant principal at White and later the technology director for Fort Benning Schools.
Now, he is ready for the first day of school and getting down to business.
"I'm really looking forward to the first day of school when all the teachers and students are once again back in session," he said. "You see new kids coming in. It's all fresh. It's new. It's exciting. And I want kids to look at school that way, to be fun every day.
"I'm a motivator. I want students to know anything is possible. I like working with students and seeing the excitement in their eyes when they learn a new skill. It's just an exciting place and there's not anywhere I can think that I would rather be."
Cheri Corser, a Stowers Elementary teacher who has known Hughes for 20 years, said she is thrilled he is returning to Fort Benning.
"Mr. Hughes was a very positive and proactive principal - a kid magnet, the kind of principal that made all of the students in the school feel he knew them personally," said Corser, who teaches preschoolers with disabilities. "He always knew my students and made it a point to get down on his knees when he came in to visit them, so he wasn't looming so far above them. They never pronounced his name correctly; it was either Mr. Shoes or Mr. Huge, but he responded to them either way. He's just able to communicate in a way they can understand."
Corser said she always felt she could come to Hughes with any questions about education, even after he left for the Pacific.
"He's an open-door kind of a person," she said, "an asset to the school and to the Fort Benning school system."
His open-door policy - and his emphasis on a close relationship with the community - is something that won't change, Hughes said.
"This school is in this community for our students and for our parents," he said. "As a staff at White school, we're here to meet their needs. My door and the doors to the school and the doors to these classrooms will always remain open."
Hughes arrives on Fort Benning at the beginning of August and will be happy to meet parents and students before the start of school. Hughes said he knows it takes everyone, community, staff, parents and teachers, to create quality learning.
"White school is an incredible school. Our students are great, and we attain great things. But we need to be able to carry the students as far as we can educationally, so they are prepared for the ever-changing world," he said.
"I know this is an elementary school, pre-K through five, but they have to have a solid foundation for whatever career they choose. Our goal is to provide that solid foundation that is going to open up many opportunities for them down the road.
"We hit the ground running and we'll work hard until we break for another summer vacation. We have a lot of work to do."
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