‘It’s about the kids’
New Maumelle principal cites experience, parents’ influence for career success
When Preston Echols was growing up, students who knew his educator parents would often excitedly greet them in public and stop to talk while he waited. Instead of being annoyed, Preston was impressed. “We would go into the store, and it would be, ‘Hey, Mrs. Echols! Hey, Coach Echols!’ To watch your parents absolutely impact the lives of kids, and then teachers, and then a community the way that they did — it’s what I wanted to do,” Preston Echols said. “To see [the students] light up when they saw them; to see them want to hug their necks; to see them stop them in the grocery store and want to talk for 30 minutes while I just stood there — I saw the impact they made.” Echols, 33, hopes to make an impact as the new Maumelle Middle School principal. He was assistant principal at Conway Junior High School before filling the opening vacated by Ryan Burgess. Echols had been on the job in Maumelle for only two weeks when he talked about his new position. The former University of Central Arkansas Bears football player was on crutches, nursing a torn Achilles tendon he sustained while working out over the previous weekend. Sports and education have always gone together for Echols. His parents grew up in Forrest City, and he went to school there in different “stints,” he said. He played football, basketball and baseball in Forrest City. His mother, Ardelia, taught social studies; his father, Rodney, was a math teacher and coach. “I have two amazing parents, two amazing
supporters. I was the kid that every day after school, I went to my mom and dad’s work, whether that was a little kid getting off the bus and going to their classroom or that older kid getting off the bus and going to Central Office. … I went into the break room to do homework. I sat in the back of the room during meetings. I was always in the car when they went to drop off teachers or whatever, because I was younger.”
He has an older sister, Martina Smith, and a brother, Rodney Echols Jr.
Preston Echols said his parents moved for job advancements, first from Forrest City to Pine Bluff, where his father was an assistant superintendent. Then they moved to Helena when his father became superintendent of the Helena-West Helena School District, and his mother was the Title I coordinator there.
Echols attended grades four through eight in the Helena-West Helena district. His father also taught at a college in Jackson, Tennessee, while they lived in Helena.
Echols went back to Forrest City for grades nine through 12. He lived with his greatgrandmother, Tommie Westfield, for six months.
“She actually was in a wheelchair,” he said. “She was paralyzed from the waist down. [Living with her] was a true blessing. She helped grow me, and I also was able to help her a little bit, so it was a blessing both ways.”
His mother moved back to Forrest City, and his father came home every weekend.
Echols graduated in the top 10 percent of his Forrest City High School class and went to UCA on a football scholarship, knowing without a doubt that he wanted to become a teacher and coach.
“I want to be like my mom and dad; I want to impact the youth. My parents and God — they’re the reason I’m doing what I’m doing,” he said.
Echols was a wide receiver on the UCA team from 20062009. Nathan Brown, who was the quarterback while Echols played, is now the Bears head coach.
“Watching [Brown] — that piece is really awesome now,” Echols said. “UCA football is the best football in the state of Arkansas, and I know I’m very partial to it.”
Brown said the trait he remembers the most is Echols’ positive attitude.
“First of all, it doesn’t take long to be around Preston to just feel his energy and positivity. He’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever been around,” Brown said. “He was always wise and mature beyond his years. I think he was raised really well by his parents, which resulted in him being an unbelievable student-athlete at UCA.”
Brown said Echols was a natural team leader, too, “someone people were naturally drawn to,” and that helped him have “quick success, not only as a student, but as a football player.”
Echols said it wasn’t hard to keep up his grades while meeting the demands of football.
“With two parents who are educators, they don’t mess around with education,” he said, laughing. “That piece was not difficult for me because I knew why I was there; I knew I was there to be a studentathlete.”
Echols was named Academic All-Conference several times; Second Team All-Conference one year and All-Conference his senior year. He also played on the 2008 Southland Conference Championship team.
“Playing was fun, challenging and difficult, making sure you stay healthy,” he said.
The support from his parents was unwavering, Echols said. They never missed one of his high school or UCA games, including a trip to Hawaii the Bears took his sophomore year.
Echols said he met Carise, the woman who is now his wife, on his second day at UCA. She is assistant principal at Carolyn Lewis Elementary School in Conway.
“We bounce ideas off each other; we work as a team,” he said. The couple, who will celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary on Sept. 1, live in Conway and have two daughters, Zoe, almost 6; and Aubrey, 3.
Echols, who has two master’s degrees — physical education and educational leadership — is working on his Educational Specialist degree through UCA.
His first teaching job was as a PE teacher and coach at a Pine Bluff elementary school; then he went to Watson Chapel School District as a PE and health teacher and football coach. He came back to Conway, where he worked as a PE teacher and coach at several elementary schools while he also coached high school football for the Wampus Cats.
He said he loves teaching younger children.
“As a PE teacher, it’s Santa Claus every day. They love to see you arrive and hate to see you go,” he said. “They really are clay; you have a chance to shape and mold and shape and mold.”
Echols worked for nine years in the Conway School District, including the past four years as assistant principal at Conway Junior High School under Principal Ben Darley, whom Echols said encouraged and inspired him.
“He’s definitely a big part of the reason I’m here [in a principal’s position],” Echols said. “He said, ‘Preston, you’re going to be a principal someday.’ He gave me all the tools I needed to be a principal. He prepares you to take on a leadership role. I prayed hard for God to show me a sign, just to interview.”
Darley said the credit goes to Echols.
“Preston is one of those people that whenever you meet him, you know he’s going to do special things. He is phenomenal with kids, parents and with teachers,” Darley said. “He’s one of those folks you’re really proud whenever you get the opportunity to hire them for a position, because you know they can do your job better than you. We’re all extremely proud and excited that he’s getting the opportunity to be a principal.”
Echols said he couldn’t be happier in his new role.
“This is an amazing place to be,” he said, emphasizing the word “amazing.” “Everybody asks, ‘How’s it going? How’s it going?’ I can’t explain to people how amazing I feel inside and how awesome it is to be there. It’s a blessing. I know amazing; I know exciting; I know overjoyed. I can’t explain how I feel because I’m just so happy to be here.”
His first goal at Maumelle Middle School is to build relationships, which his parents emphasized, he said. There are a lot of new faces in the building. In addition to him, Assistant Principal Angela Saine is new, as well as 15 of 60 teachers.
“We kind of have a new staff, so we have to build trust, camaraderie,” he said.
“I’m trying to learn all I can learn. I think the biggest piece is listening,” Echols said. ‘You can come in and you can talk a bunch … and make a bunch of demands, but you haven’t gained the trust of your staff and team. I’ve been listening to staff, parents, the community. I haven’t been here, so I’m trying to get to know everyone and find out the areas we need to grow in.”
Enrollment is 655 in the middle school, which houses grades six, seven and eight.
Students will be onsite five days a week this year, he said. Last year, classes were virtual and onsite.
“That’s going to be a change for a lot of our kids,” he said.
“We’ve got to meet their emotional and social needs. Then we’re going to have to do some recoupment in terms of building those foundational skills of our students. Some kids have been out of school a year and a half to two years. We have to take care of our kids.”
Another change will be block scheduling, new to the district, he said. Math and English will be 84-minute periods, up from 40-plus minutes, in an effort to improve test scores.
“We’re going to give them the help they need,” he said.
He said the middle school itself is “absolutely beautiful,” and he feels at home.
“Everyone has been very welcoming. Honestly, [the Pulaski County Special School District] has wrapped their arms around me,” he said.
Echols mentioned all the principals and assistant principals, as well as Superintendent Charles McNulty and Deputy Superintendent Alesia Smith.
Smith said Echols was the final candidate interviewed during the hiring process, “and he absolutely blew us away.”
“His passion for teaching and putting students first is evident in how he lives his life,” Smith said. ‘We are honored and excited to have him join the PCSSD family and lead our young minds at Maumelle Middle this year.”
Echols echoed Smith’s reference to family.
“It’s easy to work for PCSSD because it’s about the kids,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. It’s a family here. Everybody’s into doing it together; nobody wants you doing it yourself. The level of support is tremendous. They want to see you be successful because they know it’s for the kids, just like my mom and dad did.”
And if a student ever recognizes him in the store and wants to talk, he’s game.