New principal named for Columbia Elementary, other admin positions filled

MADISON – The Madison City Board of Education last week filled several school administrative positions, including Mill Creek Assistant Principal Kiley Rikard as the new principal for Columbia Elementary and MAAPs for Midtown Elementary and the new Russell Branch Elementary.

A MAAP is a hire in the Madison Aspiring Administrators Program which is like a training program for future principal and assistant principal positions.

Alicia Waddail, special education teacher at Mill Creek Elementary, is the new MAAP for Russell Branch. Longtime Decatur school teacher and assistant principal Kimberly Backstrom is the new MAAP at Midtown Elementary.

Columbia Elementary’s new principal, Kiley Rikard, taught 16 years in Conyers, Ga. before coming to Mill Creek Elementary in 2016 where she has taught 4th, 3rd and 2nd grade. She became assistant principal at Mill Creek in 2021 where she has remained since.

Rikard told the school board she valued her time at Mill Creek and looks forward to joining Columbia as part of the Astros team.

Waddail’s 20-plus year teaching career began in 2004 as a collaborative teacher in Savannah, Ga., before transferring to Sparkman High School in 2006, also with a focus in special education. She joined the Madison City School system in 2012, teaching at Mill Creek and then Columbia Elementary before rejoining Mill Creek as a collaborative teacher.

Backstrom, an assistant principal at Frances Nungester Elementary in Decatur, joins the Midtown team as a MAAP after a career in Decatur City Schools that also includes service as a math coach and several grade levels in both a Title 1 and Magnet School.