New Principals at Addison Elementary

ADDISON - History is being made at Addison Elementary School, with the school’s first-ever assistant principal joining a new head principal.
New Addison Elementary Principal Cindy Hastings was initially hired as the school’s assistant principal, then AES Principal Scott Flynn was moved to the high school head principal’s slot, replacing Micah Smothers, who retired.  This moved Hastings into the head principal job at Addison Elementary. This marks Hastings’ first role in administration.
After Hastings was moved to AES principal, the Winston County Board of Education hired former Meek School teacher Randole Stone as her elementary assistant principal.
“I am so thankful that my first year as an administrator here at Addison, that I get to have (an assistant principal),” Hastings pointed out.
“We are learning a lot together, and we are finding that we compliment each other beautifully,” Hastings continued. 
“This first semester, since we are both new, we are going to learn everything together,” Hastings stated. “It’s going to be a team.”
Stone, who is also beginning his first job in school administration, is excited to come back to a school where he has worked and is familiar.
“I am very dedicated to this school system and I am very thankful I get to work alongside Mrs. Hastings,” Stone said. “We compliment each other well. 
“We’ve done a lot in the summer together.  It’s been great to work alongside such a great educator,” Stone said about Hastings.  
“One of my goals is to build relationships with the kids here,” added Stone. “People don’t care how smart you are or what degrees that you’ve got. It’s how you treat people, how you engage with people.”
Hastings described Addison as an excellent school.
“I don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” said Hastings.   “I just want to enhance what is already here.” 
Hastings plans to look into various intervention programs that help keep test scores high. 
“What is working?  What can we do better?” she stated. 
“We are really focusing on the culture of the school,” Hastings continued.
 “I think the key to success at an elementary school is its teachers, so teacher retention is important.  We want the teachers here to want to come to work,” she added. “Not that the culture has not been good.  It has.  We want to keep growing, keep building on that.”
On the same note, the goal is for students to enjoy and look forward to attending school, Hastings continued. 
“We want to make a pleasant environment,” she said.
Hastings is excited to welcome Stone as her assistant to help maintain the culture already established at the elementary school.
“We don’t plan on being in our offices very much,” Hastings admitted. “We are going to be very visible. We are going to be walking around the classrooms.
“I have already let teachers know I am going to be in their classrooms all the time, not to catch them at anything, but I want to know them.  I want the kids to see us and we want them to feel like we’re a part of their community,” Hastings stressed.
This ranges from spending time with younger children playing dolls to helping older students with math, Hastings illustrated.
“I want every child that comes through Addison this year to be further along when they leave here, and not just academics.  I want them to learn to be better citizens,” Hastings explained. “I want to educate the entire child.”

Hastings comes from a diverse educational background, including a foundation in English and language arts, which she has taught for several years.
Hastings also has certification in family and consumer science and administration. She also served as a theater director, building up  community theater programs.
“I would like to see the arts come into Addison Schools eventually,” Hastings stated. 
A 1988 high school graduate in Belmont, Miss., Hastings went to Northeast Mississippi Community College, then Mississippi State University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in English education.
Hastings obtained her master’s degree in educational leadership from Arkansas State in 2018.
Through the years, Hastings taught 5th-12th grade English, as well as literature, creative writing and journalism at various schools, including Hamilton High School in Marion County.
“I love teaching writing.  That is one of the things that teachers here have expressed, (that) they would like a more cohesive writing program, K-6,” Hastings stated about Addison. “That is something I feel I can help them with right off the bat.”

After graduating from Meek High School, Stone majored in nursing at the University of North Alabama, but decided that was not the career path he wanted to take, he said.
Stone transferred to Athens State University, where he studied for a degree in K-12 special education.
After working in special education at Decatur City Schools, Stone began work in 2017 as a paraprofessional at Meek High School, transferring to Addison, where he was a paraprofessional from 2018-2019.
Stone obtained a degree in 2018, from Athens State in special education/collaborative education kindergarten through 12th grade, later obtaining a master’s in special education from UNA in 2020.
Stone graduated in 2022 from Auburn University with a degree in instructional leadership K-12, and an EDS in instructional leadership in 2024.
“I am currently enrolled in the Ph.D program to get my doctorate,” Stone stated.