Maureen Rodriguez started her journey with North East ISD at Ed White Middle School in 1979. It was her second year as a teacher and her first time teaching at a middle school campus. She didn’t realize it at the time, but this was the first of many “full circle” moments in education.
“I knew I wanted to be a special education teacher when I was 15 years old,” said Rodriguez. “I did a summer camp working with deaf children and that led me to special education.”
Today, she’s an assistant principal at Jackson Middle School. Over the past 43 years, she worked at Ed White, Nimitz, Garner and Jackson middle schools, as well as North East Transition Services (NETS) and an attendance officer. Maureen’s impact across NEISD is immeasurable.
“I’ve been here for 43 years and the belief that we do what’s best for kids has kept me here,” said Rodriguez. “I can’t imagine not having the opportunity to work with kids and make a difference. I now have the opportunity to work with kids of parents that were my students. I think that’s so cool.”
Her commitment goes beyond the regular school year. Rodriguez has spent the past seven summers serving as a summer school principal. This year, she worked with an incredible group of educators at Steubing Ranch Elementary School.
“I haven’t been in an elementary campus since the first year I started teaching 43 years ago but gosh this is so much fun. We’ve got a great team of teachers and each and every one of them is inspired to be here. That’s the fun thing about summer school – we all come from different campuses.”
It doesn’t matter which campus she’s on - Rodriguez puts every student first. It’s a passion that inspired her to coordinate NEISD’s Summer School graduation each year. Seeing students shine and find success fills her cup and keeps her coming back year after year.
