Archives > Southlake Times > News
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
Principal retires after 25-year career
By Heather M. Goodwin, hgoodwin@starlocalnews.com
For one Southlake educator, retirement doesn't mean moving to Florida and never working again. It means starting over in a new career and going back to school.
Karen White, principal of Rockenbaugh Elementary School, will retire at the end of this school year. White has worked in public education for 25 years, but soon she will re-enter school herself to get her nursing degree.
"I plan to go back to school and get a degree in nursing after I retire. I will start nursing school either this summer or fall. I'm going to need a distracter during the day because this will be the first time in 25 years that I won't be surrounded by children at the time of school starting," White said. "I want to do medical mission trips and work in a hospital. I look at this as my way to keep giving back, and I want to be able to achieve this goal and be able utilize the skill."
Ideally, White said after nursing school she would be hired at a hospital and go on mission trips with the hospital.
"I want to go on medical mission trips because I've seen both ends of society in my education career. I've worked with children in very deprived homes to the affluent Southlake area. I would like to give back to areas that are even more unfortunate than our most unfortunate areas. I look at this as a global society," White said. "It's an opportunity to go and serve another country. I feel like I've always practiced service leadership and this is just another way to do that."
White said she would like to go to Haiti and areas of Africa. She also said being a frequent visitor of Mexico, makes that an appealing place for a mission trip. White said she's wanted to be a nurse since high school.
"During my last two years of high school I worked part time in a hospital. This is something I've wanted to do for a longtime," White said. "However, I am filled with mixed emotions because education is a wonderful career, and I will miss it."
Working in the education field was a natural progression for White. Her father was an educator and while growing up, she spent a lot of time at schools. Teaching wasn't White's first job, but she quickly realized how her father's experiences affected her. She said she wanted to have those same experiences.
"My dad was an inspiration to all of my siblings, but I was the only to choose teaching," White said.
White taught second through fifth grade in the Fort Worth and Castle Berry school districts before working in the Carroll school district. She began as an assistant principal at Rockenbaugh Elementary.
"My first two years of being a principal was difficult because I felt I didn't have my own area. Then I realized I became a teacher of teachers as principal," White said. "As principal, I feel like I'm more invested in the students than I was as the assistant principal."
Looking back on her 25-year education career, White said there are too many "great" moments" to pick just one.
"I don't know if there's one moment that stands out as the best moment of my career. Every time I sit and listen to a child read, I'm always amazed at what our children accomplish in a relatively short time. It's the same thing with witnessing improvements in behavior," White said. "This is a very rewarding career; I can't imagine a career more rewarding than my time in education. My job is filled with joy and at end of day it doesn't matter how many frustrations I deal with because I still have more satisfactions than frustrations."
White said what she will miss most about education is seeing the students who have already moved on come back to the elementary school to visit.
"I always tell students they can come by and visit anytime. It's great to see what they've accomplished. I think of them as my children because Rockenbaugh is very much a family," White said. "I've never worked in a district with parents so invested in the school and children. I feel very blessed to work here. Our community is filled with parents who are so talented and who use their skills to help our schools."
The Carroll School Board recently voted to approve the superintendent's recommendation to name Lisa Young as the next principal of Rockenbaugh Elementary School.
"I think everyone is confident that we will have someone who will come in and lead the school," White said. "My advice to any new principal is to always begin and end day with joy. Look for the talents and strengths of every child, celebrate those consistently, give of yourself freely, be generous in your praise of efforts, help out whenever you can and don't ask of others what you wouldn't do yourself. As a leader, I think I set the tone for the campus, but the success of the campus doesn't reside with me alone."
White had a final message to all the students she has known.
"Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to get a very small glimpse of who you are because with that I can only imagine who you will become," White said. "More important than knowledge is the compassion they show others. The students inspire me through watching them interact with each other. I truly feel that being an educator is the most rewarding opportunity I've had."
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
