A Russell County native is making his mark on the next generation just a few miles west of his beloved hometown. Trent Hadley, a 2005 graduate of RCHS, will become the second vice principal at Adair County High School next school year, joining Principal Chad Parnell and fellow Vice Principal Anthony Darnell.
“I have always enjoyed working with high school aged students,” Hadley says. “I love how in the high school setting you get the opportunity to see how students begin as freshmen, only knowing general education classes in grades K through 8, and then seeing them being exposed to the career pathways that the high school has to offer. You truly get to witness students grow and flourish in areas that they may have not known they had an interest in prior to their high school career.”
While Hadley is continuing his tasks as a social studies teacher at ACMS while the school year nears its end, he is already thinking ahead about his new duties as an administrator.
“My goals are just to further add to the family dynamics that the high school possesses,” he says. “Although I am leaving a fabulous group of people at Adair County Middle School, I am ecstatic to be able to now call ACHS my home. I look forward to continuing help build school spirit and make students proud to call ACHS their school.”
The 35-year-old says he will take a student-first approach to the job at ACHS.
“For me as an educator, students come first, second, and third,” he says. “At the end of the day, I feel the most rewarding part of the job will be knowing that each day I can hopefully help make a student’s life better, whether that be academically or personally. Everyone wants to be made to feel that they are important and that they have a purpose.”
With the new role will come new responsibilities, new stresses, and new challenges, but Hadley says he is excited to move into the job and understands what is expected of him.
“I think one of the biggest things for anyone moving into a new position is delegation of time between responsibilities,” he explains. “The assistant principal position has many facets, ranging from curriculum to discipline to supervision, and oftentimes, you may be dealing with all three within any given hour of the day.”
Hadley began his career at Somerset Community College, working with the Upward Bound Program. There, his focus was in Russell and Casey counties, where he assisted first-generation students in preparing for post-secondary education. In 2016, he was hired by the Adair School District to teach social studies at Adair County Middle School.
He graduated from Lindsey Wilson College in 2010, earned his master’s degree at Western Kentucky University, and most recently added an education specialist degree from Eastern Kentucky University. He is married to Martina Loy Hadley and together they have a son, Hayes, who is in second grade.
“I’m a lifelong resident of Russell County with many family ties to Adair, so you could say I just treat both counties as home,” he says.
