Gary West, shown here in a photo taken recently during an interview, is retiring at the end of this school year after 28 years of employment at Glade Creek School.

Gary West plans to retire as principal at Glade Creek School

After 28 years of serving Glade Creek School as a teacher, coach and administrator, Principal Gary West, 51, has opted to retire following the close of the current school year.

"I feel like the school's in great shape," West commented of his upcoming retirement. "Everybody always told me, 'You would know when it was time' (to retire) and I feel like it's time."

A native of Wilkes County, West recalls the days when he would participate in athletic competition with Alleghany County students. "It seemed like they always had real good teams in all the sports," he remembers. "I was really interested in coaching and it seemed that all their kids had good attitude, they were real positive and just seemed to model what I thought kids should be. It seemed a place where kids were still kids—it seemed that Alleghany was more of a protected place. I know it's off the beaten path a little bit, but sometimes, that's not always a bad thing.

"The other thing about the county that was always positive for me was there didn't seem to be classes of people here, everybody seemed to be the same," West continued. "That's the kind of place I wanted my family to be and my kids to have a chance to grow up. Those two things just pulled me into the county and have been kind of special to me."

He was impressed so much so that, as a student at Appalachian State University, he chose to do his student teaching in Alleghany in 1978. He later attained a masters in administration from the university.

In the fall of 1979, West began his tenure at Glade, most of which was spent working as a middle grades math and science teacher and a kindergarten through fifth grade physical education teacher.

"When I first started, you were pretty much free to choose and teach the way that you wanted to," West remembers. "You were given a lot of latitude in doing what you felt you needed to do. You were not constrained with so much accountability. I've never had a problem with being accountable and I think it's a good thing to a certain point. Today some systems tell teachers they much teach a certain way and teach math so many minutes and language arts so many minutes. I enjoyed when you could teach math and reading all day long in every subject."

In the fall of 1996, West took on a new role as principal.

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