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As children settled in on a recent Thursday morning at Pink Elementary School, home to 550 primarily lower-income students in Fort Bend County’s Lamar CISD, the school’s ebullient principal, Tiffany Foster, embarked on her daily ritual: a power walk from class to class.
Foster started in the lower grades, popping into Carmen Abilucea’s second-grade bilingual class
“Our goal is to maybe take a slightly more patient approach to change, in the belief that you can go deeper and it will last longer.” Lindsay Whorton, The Holdsworth Center
to peek over a girl’s shoulder at her worksheet. Several minutes later, Foster reached Pink’s upper grade levels, crouching down in a hallway to whisper to a fifth-grader wearing a forlorn look. Finally, she arrived in the school’s prekindergarten wing, quipping that the adoring 4-year-olds are “where I go to get my selfesteem.”
“Just saying ‘hello’ can kind of change that kid’s day,” said Foster, now in her third-year leading Pink Elementary. “They come up wanting a hug, wanting a high-five. Just that connection means a lot.”
As Foster makes the whirlwind walk, her shiny black heels clacking authoritatively on the tile floor, she makes quick but useful interventions with students and Pink Elementary’s 40 teachers. These everyday gestures illustrate why Lamar CISD sees Foster as a potentially transformational leader for Pink Elementary, which this year ranked last among the district’s 39 schools