Engaging the Community: ATPE Strengthens Connections During Public Schools Week and Beyond

Public Schools Week is a weeklong celebration of public education. This year, Public Schools Week is from Feb. 24–28.

Public Schools Week is led by the Learning First Alliance and aims to celebrate all those involved in helping make public education great, including educators, staff, parents, and school board members. The theme for this year’s Public Schools Week is Community Engagement.

Last year, ATPE launched its very own online community. The community allows members from our association to be able to connect, network, and communicate with each other. The community also gives the opportunity for ATPE staff to become more connected with members. This valuable platform includes (to name just a few) communities for local unit presidents, vice presidents, and past presidents; region officers; and other topical areas, including a “Teachers Lounge” for all of our members.

Within the online community, Round Rock ATPE President Kristin Shelton shared her inspiring public school story:

“I have taught in two of the elementary schools I attended as a child. My family moved to Austin in the summer of 1976. I attended Pond Springs Elementary for third and fourth grade. As a fifth-grade student, our class helped pick colors and a mascot for the new school opening up. The school was named North Oaks Elementary, and my principal was Kathy Caraway. 

“When I graduated from college, I struggled to get a job. I subbed for a year (to get my feet in the door) and took a job teaching Pre-K. I decided maybe I wasn’t supposed to be a teacher and started taking a bookkeeping class at Austin Community College. 

“On Aug. 6, 1992, Kathy Caraway called me and offered me a job. North Oaks had a first-grade position that could be mine if I wanted it, but I would be surplused the following year.  She assured me that I would have a job somewhere in Round Rock ISD that following year, so I accepted. 

“I taught for one year at North Oaks and was packing up all my belongings on that teacher workday at the end of the semester when I got a call from Pond Springs Elementary. I was not dressed up for an interview. In fact, I looked like I was boxing up everything I owned!   They insisted I come over anyway. That interview went well, and I transferred over to Pond Springs, again teaching first grade.

“I taught three more years before taking a job with the Department of Defense Dependents Schools on Misawa Air Force Base in Misawa, Japan. When I looked to come back, the principal at Pond Springs, Royce Swaim, told me I could have a first grade position if one of the teachers ended up taking a reading specialist job. She was my mentor when I started there, and I did indeed take that job. So I returned to first grade at Pond Springs and have been there ever since.

“I have taught first grade, Pre-K, third grade, and kindergarten at Pond Springs. I have worked through various principals and office staff. I have also taught in nine different classrooms. I like to tell people I have been there longer than our two-story building.

“I should note that the building I am in now is not the building I was in as a child, but the neighborhood is the same.  I like having been in one place for so long.”

For Public Schools Week, we celebrate not only Shelton’s incredible story, but also the countless educators who, like her, dedicate themselves to the success and well-being of students every single day.