Dr. Cynthia Hammond graduated from Fort Valley State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and originally planned to go to law school. She began her professional career as a police officer in Macon and later worked as an officer in Fort Valley. She was honored as Police Officer of the Year and was promoted to Detective Sergeant, where she dealt with juvenile crimes and taught the D.A.R.E. program.  Dr. Hammond went back to college to obtain a Master’s Degree in Education, a Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership and a Doctorate Degree from Argosy University. 

She began teaching at Byron Middle School and was selected as Byron Middle Teacher of the Year. She then went on to be Peach County’s OVERALL Teacher of the Year. She transferred to Houston County and began teaching at Tabor Middle School in 2000 and was selected as Tabor’s 2004 Teacher of the Year. Dr. Hammond was an assistant principal for five years in Houston County. Of those five years, she has worked at Matt Arthur, Westside, and Miller Elementary Schools. Dr. Hammond was selected as Georgia’s Outstanding Assistant Principal by the Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals for 2009 (GAESP).  

Dr. Cynthia Hammond became the proud principal of Westside Elementary in 2009. Her most notable accomplishments as a principal was being selected as Georgia’s 2017 Distinguished Principal and receiving the highest honor by being named a National Distinguished Principal in 2017. She is married to Allen and has three beautiful children, Branden, Kayla and Brittney.

Mrs. Watkins is a proud product of the Houston County School System. She graduated from Northside High School and went on to earn her undergraduate and Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of West Georgia. She earned her Education Specialist in Teacher Leadership from Walden University. Before coming to Westside Elementary, she taught 4th grade and kindergarten for a total of 11 years and served as the Houston County Teacher of the Year for the 2016-2017 year. In 2017, she had the honor of being selected as the Assistant Principal for Instruction at Westside Elementary.

She is happily married to Daniel Watkins, and together they have three beautiful girls.  Mrs. Watkins truly believes it is GREAT to be a Westside Wildcat!