New AP Dr. Gardner: Responsibilities, Goals, and Talents

Dr. Montia Gardner was recently appointed as the new Assistant Principal at Champaign Central High School after approval by the Unit 4 Board of Education on February 14, 2022.

By no means has her career in education just begun. According to an email sent from our school regarding Dr. Gardner’s induction, she has held positions in 7 schools as an educator over the course of 20 years. As for her qualifications, Dr. Gardner “holds a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education from DePaul University, a Master of Arts in School Leadership from Concordia University (Chicago), and she earned a Doctorate in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (Baltimore),” says the same email.

As for what brought Dr. Gardner to our high school, she says, “I was looking for a new environment to do education, and was looking to relocate back to Illinois.” Dr. Gardner had worked in education in Matteson, IL, for 13 years before moving to Baltimore for her Doctorate degree. “I actually like Champaign, mostly because I love the college-town feel,” Dr. Gardner shared.

Being an Assistant Principal, the way in which Dr. Gardner will interact with students is an important topic. Dr. Gardner explained, “A lot of the work that I’ve done over the last couple of weeks has dealt with disciplinary issues with students. But in the meantime I’m also trying my best to build relationships with students. I know you probably think it’s odd, but when I have lunch duty, I always stop at tables and engage in conversation. If a student is reading a book, I’ll ask what book the student is reading… In that way, even when I see students who don’t have behavioral issues, I’ve already built a little bit of a relationship with them. So, it’s not all discipline… It’s to make them feel comfortable around me so that when they do have to come before me for something, we already have a mutual respect for each other.”

Dr. Gardner also highlighted a few goals she wants to achieve at Champaign Central: “What I would really like now is if every student was attending their classes on time every day, I think that would not only support them in being successful, but it would support us in being able to trust students to do what they say they’re going to do. Once you develop trust in students, you can open the door to more opportunities for them like dances… The other thing is, I’m really interested in the Track program, ‘cause I was a Track athlete when I was in college, and so I’m really interested in inching into that to see how much of a help I can be to support the track team. Another one of my goals is to develop a culturally responsive student base that shares some of the things that they think would be better if teachers and administrators were more culturally responsive to their needs.”

Along a different route, I asked Dr. Gardner about her own schooling experience at her high school in Gary, Indiana, and the type of student she was at our age. “I absolutely loved all four years of my high school life,” says Dr. Gardner, “I was involved in everything: I was a three-sport athlete, volleyball, basketball, and track, I was the president of the Thespian Society my senior year, I was student council president my junior and senior year, I won the State Championships in Track & Field, and I also won the State Speech Contest. I wouldn’t really say I was popular, but I was definitely really busy building my collegiate resume.”

Dr. Gardner also spoke of a special experience during her high school career: “At one point I was the Student Liaison for the Mayor’s Office. One of the great things about that is every Thursday they would send a limo for me at 1 o'clock, and the limo would take me down to City Hall, and I would sit all of the City Officials on their board, and I would be the student voice.”

To end fittingly, I also asked Dr. Gardner if she had a message she’d like to share with the student-body as a new member at our building. She said, “I’d like them to know that they will always find me to be fair. That I have a lot of talents that I would like to enjoy with them; like, I also do Spoken Word, I am a Spoken Word Artist. I just published a book… Dissertating During A Pandemic… it’s on Amazon… I want them to know that they should be proud that the school that they go to offers many opportunities for them to be successful. Whether they want to go college track or vocational, if they take advantage of the things that are here, they can be successful in every avenue that they want to.

“But I also want them to know that I’m a person, and I’m not just here to make them do what they’re supposed to do. That I’m a resource for them, for any student that would like to know about me or would like me to support them in their personal growth, I’m definitely here for them.”

In the update sent on February 28, 2022, Central said, “Dr. Gardner began last week and has already become a great addition to Central!” Let’s welcome Dr. Montia Gardner to Champaign Central High School with open arms!