Thank you Corsicana!

As I sit on my final night of an amazing vacation I wanted to take time to thank the people of Corsicana for allowing me to serve as principal for the past 6 years. I still remember my first day as principal of Drane Intermediate and my final day as principal of Corsicana High School.

I want to thank Mr. Don Denbow for allowing a 27 year old to be a campus principal. He believed in me and allowed me to attempt to be great! I am eternally grateful!

I want to thank Dr. Diane Frost for always believing in me. She wasn't on the job long before she promoted me to principal of Collins Middle School. I served there two years and she promoted me again as principal of Corsicana High School. Thank you for allowing me to live out my dream of being a high school principal. 

I want to thank all the faculty and staff that worked with me over the last 6 years! We've had some good times! We were together through the highs and lows. Thank you for never giving up! Thank you for listening to my wacky ideas! Thank you for always believing in the great things we can do for our children! You were always champions for children and I appreciate that! 

I want to thank the parents and the wonderful community of Corsicana! I was an outsider and you made me an insider. I was welcomed with open arms my very first day and I felt the same way on the last day. You trusted me with your children and always believed in our approach for educational improvement. Most principals do not enjoy the level of support that I always had in Corsicana! Thank you!

Finally, I would like to thank the students of Corsicana High School! My children! I'm getting emotional just thinking about the fact that I will not see you in the halls next year!  I was blessed to watch most of you grow up from 6th graders to mature young men and women. I still can't believe some of you are driving now. The thing that stands out to me the most is that you never let me down. You were always at your best. Of course some made some bad choices along the way, but we always got through it together. I appreciate that you always showed so much compassion to your fellow students and that you cared about learning. I will miss all of you and always stay in touch via twitter: @herbertoneiljr

Many of you have asked what I will be doing now that I have left Corsicana. I will be the Director of Academics for Life Schools which is headquartered in Lancaster, TX. It is an open enrollment charter school network with 8 campuses. My job is to provide instructional and administrative support to campus leadership. 

I will never forget my time in Corsicana. I learned so much and met so many great people! As I told the students of Corsicana High School: always hold up the light!

Go Tigers!

Home of Champions

I Had to Wait!

It's been a while since I wrote in this space, and I think today is a great time to do so.  I had a great time yesterday with our Life Leadership Academy.  They are a great group of motivated educators that are part of the next generation of leaders at Life Schools.  I am glad they put up with me each month as we grow together. I can't wait until we begin blogging our experiences together!

Yesterday I got to thinking about my journey and how things have shaped out to where they are now.  I can still remember the time that I went for my first principal job.  Boy was I excited!  I actually had an opportunity to interview for a principal position of a large junior high in a great school district.  I studied and prepared well, and thought I did a great job on the interview.  I can still remember waiting anxiously for the superintendent to call me and tell me that I would be the new principal of this school.  Day after day, night after night...no call!  I knew that the school board meeting was coming up and they would soon be naming the new principal at the board meeting.  Well, the board meeting was Monday, and it's now Monday and still no call.  I sort of figured that I didn't get the job by now.  Around 5:00 pm on that Monday I received a call from the human resources director informing me that they had gone with another individual.  He told me the individuals name, and gave me her number because I was currently an assistant principal and I would be working for her.  There it was staring me in the face!  I didn't get it!  I was crushed!  It felt as everything had been taken from me. I just sat there with the phone still in my hand.  What made this tough was that I wanted it soooo bad.  I could taste it! It didn't happen!

So what did I learn?  I learned that there is a time and place for everything.  It took me several years to verbally speak about this situation.  I always felt I was inferior because I didn't get it.  But now I know better! I know that it just wasn't the job for me.  The good thing is that there was a job out there for me, and I later got it.  I had to keep working hard in my current position until I got something else, and I couldn't give up on the journey I was attempting to take.  It was a hard lesson for me, but I now appreciate it.  There have been other jobs I haven't gotten.  I learn from the experiences, keep working hard, and keep marching forward.

Herbert

Blessed to still get to work with students!