Robin R. Mills was expected to be named the new principal at Lester B. Sommer Elementary School. In addition, Michael A Cox, a current teacher at Northridge Middle School, was expected to be named the assistant principal at North Montgomery High School.

Both appointments were contingent on approval by the school board at a special school board meeting which was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. today.

Mills currently works for the Wayne Township Schools, which feeds into Ben Davis High School, as a special service staff developer - which means she has been in charge of teacher training for the special education area for the past year.

Prior to that, she had been an assistant principal at Wayne Township Elementary School. She has also been an elementary teacher at Pike Township School in Indianapolis.

"She comes highly recommended," North Montgomery Superintendent Dr. Robert Brower said. "Everyone we talked to said she had great people skills and everyone loved her. We feel very fortunate to be able to bring her on board. She is a top-notch person."

Mills was selected out of a candidate pool of approximately 40 individuals. Out of that total 10 were interviewed and three were invited back for a second interview before the decision was made.

"As you know we put all of our candidates through a scientific based testing process and she came out head and shoulders above the rest," Brower said. "Then her people skills realty came out in the interview process."

Mills is looking forward to the change from one of the biggest schools systems to the North Montgomery system.

"I have enjoyed my years in the Wayne Township School system, but I am looking forward to getting into a smaller school that is a close-knit community and getting to know all the kids and their families." Mills said Monday night.

"I feel like one of our biggest goals has to be to meet the needs of all the students," she said. "Many times we try to meet the needs of the middle of the road students and don't concentrate on the needs of the higher group or the lower group. That all comes from professional development and teaching the teachers how to do that within their classroom."

Cox, in his third year as a social studies teacher at Northridge Middle School, also was chosen from a pool of nearly 40 applicants.

"Michael is someone we had our eye on from the beginning," Brower said. "We are very excited to be able to hire someone from within."

Prior to coming to Northridge, the Western Boone graduate was athletic director at Hamilton Heights Middle School from 1995 to 2004. He doubled as a teacher 1995-98 and as the Dean of Students from 1998-2004.

"His test scores were very good and the fact he knows the corporation and is familiar with the system is such a big plus for us," Brower said. "We are very fortunate to have someone in the system who can step up and step right in."

Brower said Cox currently does not have his administration license, but is very close and will have before beginning the position.