Singing principal wins state award

Gary Logan, assistant principal at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School in Conway, sings and dances each morning as he greets students. Logan, who is a member of his church’s choir, said his goal is to make sure students start off the day with a smile. He recently received the Arkansas Assistant Elementary Principal of the Year Award.
Gary Logan, assistant principal at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School in Conway, sings and dances each morning as he greets students. Logan, who is a member of his church’s choir, said his goal is to make sure students start off the day with a smile. He recently received the Arkansas Assistant Elementary Principal of the Year Award.

CONWAY — Gary Logan considers himself a singer, not a dancer, but he does both every morning to make students smile.

Logan, assistant principal at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School in Conway, gets a microphone and stands on the sidewalk in front of the drop-off area of the school every morning to greet the students with a song and occasional dancing.

“I love singing. I’m not a dancing man, but I’ve got a couple of go-to moves,” he said.

“I don’t give them an option to do anything but get out of that car and smile. We treat every day like Friday.”

In addition to gaining widespread media attention for his singing and dancing, in April he received the Arkansas Assistant Elementary Principal of the Year Award. Logan said his principal, Dayna Lewis, nominated him. The Arkansas

Association of Educational Administrators sponsors the award.

“Somehow I managed to win it,” he said.

The school invited his family and former co-workers to be there when he received the award.

“It was a big old surprise,” Logan said. “It meant the world just to see all those people they invited.”

Logan grew up in Mayflower, and he was a teacher and administrator in the Mayflower School District before taking the Conway position. He said he was touched that his former mentor in the district, Mayflower Elementary School literacy specialist Lynn Raney, was in attendance.

“She showed me the ropes. She told me I couldn’t take it home every day; it’ll be there tomorrow,” he said, whether that was stress or paperwork.

Mayflower Superintendent John Gray remembers Logan — whom he calls G-Lo — fondly. Gray jokingly called Logan a traitor.

“I gave him his first job. We put him in our parent center, made him a teacher, made him an assistant principal — and then he took off to Conway. We wish he hadn’t left,” Gray said. “He’s Mr. Personality; that’s for sure.”

Logan, 29, said he started singing on the bus when he was a teacher and bus driver in Mayflower.

“I sang before I had a radio on the bus,” he said. Then he got a bus with a radio. “I used to crank the radio and just sing to everything.”

He said being a positive influence on children is one reason he went into education.

Logan worked at the Boys and Girls Club in Mayflower when he was in high school, where he was student-body president and class president. “I wasn’t a rocket scientist — I had pretty average grades,” he said. “I didn’t get in trouble — much — but I did have a good time.”

He majored in elementary education at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.

“I wanted them to have a positive male role model at an early age, particularly African-American,” he said. “I love the influence you can have early on.”

He taught third grade for four years in the Mayflower School District.

“I love the kids; I love the interaction,” he said. “Kids really just need to see you care about them.”

He said his favorite part of teaching was when a child had an aha moment.

“When a kid finally got something they were struggling with, ah — I don’t think there’s any better feeling in the world.”

Logan became assistant principal at the high school for a year — and that’s all it took to realize “high school was not my cup of tea,” he said. High school students are “miniature adults with large attitudes and personalities,” he said.

Logan is in his second year as assistant principal at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School, which has about 530 students, he said.

Logan said he realized the microphone and speaker used for announcements was Bluetooth compatible, and he uses his phone to play the music.

He starts early in the mornings by performing for students who arrive by bus and wait in the cafeteria.

“That’s the first jam session of the day,” he said.

Then about 7:40, he moves to the front of the school.

His repertoire includes a song from the Disney movie Frozen, as well as songs parents seem to like on Throwback Thursdays.

“I pull out some [Fresh] Prince of Bel-Air,” he said. Wednesdays are his choice of songs, which includes his favorite to sing, “My Girl,” or gospel songs. He is the youth pastor and sings in a choir at Palarm Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Mayflower.

Woodrow Cummins parent Stephanie Barrett said Logan is “phenomenal.”

“We love him. He’s so great with the kids. He knows everyone’s names. It seems like he really cares about them,” she said.

Her 10-year-old son, Ethan Barrett, is a fourth-grader at the school and a fan of Logan’s.

“While we’re in class, he’s making funny faces to entertain us,” Ethan said. “When we’re having a bad day, he cheers us up with just a smile.”

His 7-year-old sister, Tana Barrett, said shyly: “He’s a nice man.”

Logan said people who first meet him often make comments such as, ‘I’ll bet [students] walk the line for you.’ “I say the first day or so, maybe. I’m a big old kid; I’m one of them,” he said.

Logan said that after his story was first published in a magazine and he was on television, he started getting phone calls from all sorts of outlets, such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Dr. Oz Show.

“It was every day for a week or two,” he said. “With it being so big, I said, ‘Lord, I’m just a country kid from Mayflower.’”

He was not invited on the television shows, although his story made People.com and other publications.

“I have a job to do; I can’t be taking off here and there. I would have gone to Ellen, though,” Logan said.

“We were not looking for anything from anybody; we just wanted to do our own thing and entertain kids,” he said. “I love what I do; I love it. There’s not a more rewarding profession out there.

“I plan to become a principal and keep moving up the chain till they’re tired of me, and I’ll retire and become a banker.”

A singing and dancing banker, no doubt.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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