Uno mas

Tomorrow will be my last day of employment with North East ISD.

On Monday, I start my new job with Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD.

I haven't said very much at all about this transition because I wanted to tell the people I work with about me leaving before I told the Internet about it.

I have spent two years and ten weeks working for NEISD. They gave Monica and I a reason to come back to San Antonio, and for that I will be forever grateful. I will truly miss the people that I have worked with over the past two years. The Educational Techology department at NEISD has some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet, and some of the most dedicated in the district. I have also met some amazing teachers at the four campuses I've worked at...you know who you are.

When I interviewed with NEISD, one of the questions I was asked was how I would handle having multiple campuses to take care of, since I was coming from a single-school district. I answered that since I would be mainly responsible for curriculum, planning and staff development, I should be able to handle it just fine. I think over the past couple of years, I've handled my duties very well. There were plenty of areas I could have improved upon, and I never felt as though I was doing a perfect job, but hopefully the teachers at my campuses felt like I gave them the assistance they needed when they needed it.

So with such great people to work with, why did I leave?

There are a number of reasons, actually, some of which I don't want to get into, but for me personally, I felt that the job in Schertz was a step toward where I want to eventually end up, and that's in charge of a tech department somewhere. Maybe it will be in Schertz some years down the road, and maybe it will be somewhere else, but my goal is to get back to the point of making decisions and being able to be influential in how technology is used in education.

While I was able to directly influence how technology was used in classrooms in NEISD, I felt like there were certain aspects of the job that were out of my control. After being the decision maker on things like purchases, curriculum, network, and policy decisions in Chicago, it was quite an adjustment for me to not have those responsibilities.

I feel as though I'll have some of those opportunities again in Schertz. It is a relatively small district that is growing like crazy. The student population is projected to double in the next five years. Their technology department is small, which means I'm getting in on the ground floor of an organization that is going to continue to grow, and I'll be part of the team that directly influences the vision for the use of techology.

Working for a large school district has been an amazing experience for me, and I've certainly learned a lot at NEISD. However, now I'm looking forward--to a new beginning for me, a new beginning for our family as we move to a new house, and a new opportunity for me to share what I know about technology with teachers in a new place.

Farewell, NEISD...it has been my pleasure to work for you.

SCUCISD, bring it on.