About Me
I am from Houston, Texas, where I attended elementary, junior high, and high school (Houston Independent School District). I attended Texas Southern University receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications and Communication with a minor in Music. My next stop was Prairie View A & M University where I received a Master of Education Administration degree. I have completed all of the coursework for my doctorate in Professional Studies at Franklin University, with only the dissertation and comprehensive examination remaining to complete the doctoral process.
Professionally, I have worked on all three (3) levels of the public education system and the charter system spending the majority of my 20-plus year career focusing on at-risk students in secondary education. I started my career as a long-term substitute teacher, working my way through different disciplines including band, and finally finding my niche in special education where I truly began to understand each child’s challenge to learn and achieve.
Although I am a lifelong educator. Currently, I provide consulting services to governmental agencies, school districts, and businesses, with professional growth plans being used in Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Montana.
For the last six years, I serve as the Principal of Central High School in the Kansas City Public School System. Central is one of the oldest high schools west of the Mississippi River and once upon a time was considered one of the most dominant schools in the Kansas City area. In recent years, Central’s reputation and status in the community took a turn for the worst and diminished into the shadows of other schools and communities in the area.
Going into the 2016 school year, Central was considered to be the worst high school in the Kansas City area and possibly one of the worst in the state of Missouri. In June of 2016, I took leadership of Central Academy of Excellence. From then to the present the Central and the Central Community have grown by leaps and bounds.
This growth can be measured by a growing student population with successful athletic teams, a growing graduation rate, and the addition of extra-curricular activities such as band, choir, dance, and cheer. I am no longer the principal at Central. However, I am a life-long educator and will continue to work with fellow educators to develop the faculty/staff, communities, and stakeholders to push for higher academic achievement and connectivity to produce academically sound students and strong civic-minded citizens.
Working with students with special needs came naturally to me. I learned to use the experiences with my uncle who probably would have been diagnosed with intellectual developmental disorder by today’s definitions and standards. I was also a member of a handicapped Boy Scout Troop where many of the members had handicaps such as muscular dystrophy, scoliosis, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and Scout Master who was blind. From these experiences, I developed an affection for this group and it didn’t end there… My senior project in college was a public service announcement addressing the needs of the blind at Texas Southern University.
Having worked in an alternative educational placement setting with 100% of the population being categorized as special education and 75% of those students being on probation or parole, I developed an understanding of the need of addressing the individual student’s needs. This is an approach that has proved beneficial. I pride myself on excelling in the areas of Crisis Intervention (CIT), Response To Intervention (RTI) and the Individual Education Profile (IEP) being addressed campus-wide.
Remember...
“Each child is given a package…
It is up to us when he or she opens it”
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