Gerald Franks has been hired as assistant principal at Madison Elementary School. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Gerald W. Franks has been hired as assistant principal at Madison Elementary School.

Since 2000, he has worked for Huntsville City Schools. He taught seventh-grade world geography and coached basketball and track at Huntsville Middle School. At Huntsville High School, he taught U.S. history and coached baseball and boys’ and girls’ basketball.

For the past two years, he served as assistant principal at Chapman Schools and then at Williams Middle School.

“Having lived in Madison County my entire life, I’ve always been aware of the great opportunities that both the community and school system in Madison offer,” Franks said. “Madison City Schools is one of the premiere school systems in the state. This is a great opportunity for me to grow personally as well as professionally.”

At Madison elementary, he will supervise instruction, discipline, safety, textbooks and buses, along with other duties.

His former and current schools are similar in size, but Chapman has pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, while Madison elementary serves grades K-6 with a larger student population.

“We had primarily two classes per grade level in elementary grades at Chapman,” Franks said. “In some grades this year at Madison elementary, we have five per grade level.”

Throughout his years as student, teacher, coach and administrator, he considers himself fortunate. “As a college freshman, I was going through an extremely rough period. Dr. Leonard, my biology 101 professor, saw a change in me even though I was one (in) more than 100 students in his class,” Franks said.

Leonard “took the time to not only get to know me but to help me work through my personal issues and be successful in his class. His desire to build that relationship and help me in my time of need is something that I’m eternally thankful for and is what motivates me to be a better educator every day,” Franks said.

Franks earned a bachelor’s degree in general social science at Auburn University and a master’s degree in instructional leadership at Samford University.

Currently living in Huntsville, Franks plans to move to Madison soon.