Mustang Public Schools will be offering a limited option for full-day pre-kindergarten for the 2019-2020 school year. Pre-Kindergarten Round-up will be held at Mustang High School in the Commons from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on March 26. Parents need to bring a completed packet, available at www.mustangps.org/enrollment.aspx plus supporting documents to the round-up.

Jennifer Edwards was named the first Teacher of the Year for Meadow Brook Intermediate. Edwards teaches fifth and sixth grade Leadership, Communications and Gifted and Talented (GATE). She's been with Mustang Schools for six years.
Edwards believes teaching is her purpose in life. 

 

“I truly believe it is what God called me to do,” she said. 

 

The idea of teaching as a profession didn’t occur to Edwards until she was in high school. She was heavily involved in DECA, a high school program focuses on business and marketing. She loved her two DECA teachers and thought it would be fun to teach a similar program, an elective where students choose to be in the class. 

 

Kyla Johnson, Prairie View Elementary’s Teacher of the Year, seemed destined to teach. She helped her mother and grandmother, both teachers, prepare their classroom materials. Her father was once the youngest superintendent in Texas, and Johnson was there beside him, lending a hand in setting up the room for board meetings and preparing materials for staff. 

“My family taught me the dedication, time, passion and excitement required for teaching. I knew it was more than an eight to three job. Due to their support I am now in my 18th year in education,” she said. “Time flies fast when you are doing something you believe in and love.”

Lawhon knew when she was in elementary school that she would be a teacher. Every day when she arrived home, her toys and little sister were her pupils as she taught her own classes. 

“My passion for teaching continued after I had so many wonderful teachers who made such a significant difference in my life,” she said. “My teachers were some of my biggest fans and they never let me give up. I, in return, wanted to be that teacher for other children. I hope to be the teacher that they remember who continuously encouraged them to never give up on their goals.” 

Monica Trail Photo by Vickers Photography

Horizon Intermediate’s Teacher of the Year, Monica Trail, remembers sitting in class when she was in the sixth grade, thinking, “There is no way I want to grow up and write on a chalkboard all day long.” She loved children, begging mothers at her church to let her babysit. A desire to be around kids was part of life, but working with children didn’t occur to her as a career.  

Trail, who teaches a special education fifth grade math class, enrolled in college pursuing a computer science degree. Her class schedule included multiple programming classes.