LOCAL PRINCIPAL NAMED REGION’S BEST
“I’ve always known in my heart that people are people, and if you make yourself available, and that you care and they matter, it comes easy.”
COMING FROM A SMALL HIGH SCHOOL of fewer than 350 students to a large high school with about 1,800 students sounds intimidating – but there are souls that flourish in a crowd. Carla Granberry Dupree is one such person. After only two years as principal of Texas High School, she has been named Region 8 Principal of the Year. Growing up, Carla never thought of herself as a teacher. In fact, the 1991 graduate of Atlanta High School aspired to be a technical writer, creating documentation like instruction manuals and reference guides.
“I thought it would be a great way to make money. But you don’t have much interaction with others, and I would miss that,” she said.
Thanks to the advice of high school teacher Sue Tomberlain, Carla decided that a career in teaching would be best.
“I never saw myself as a teacher but I did an internship at a middle school while I was in college and I loved it,” she said.
Soon after graduating from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1995, she took a job as a speech teacher at Queen City High School. Five years later, she was named assistant principal at Queen City Elementary, where she remained for 22 years before joining the staff at Texas High.
“It was a bit of culture shock. I kept thinking ‘how will I develop relationships with all these kids?’ But I was surprised because it happened so quickly,” she said. “I’ve always known in my heart that people are people, and if you make yourself available, and that you care and they matter, it comes easy.”
Besides the larger population, the size of the campus was something else to get used to.
“Every day I hit 14,000 steps before I leave work because I’m constantly walking all over this huge campus,” she said.
Carla credits her nine assistant principals with making her job easier. One of those assistants is Lucia Ochoa, a former Spanish teacher who is now the first bilingual administrator at Texas High.
“It’s important for kids to see someone like themselves on staff,” Carla said. “Our campus will benefit from that.”
The importance of realistic role models is something she is passionate about. Growing up in the little community of Douglassville, outside of Atlanta, Carla’s dad worked hard to support the family while her mother went to nursing school.
“I didn’t have the expensive shoes or clothes the other kids at school had,” she said. “I remember getting a pair of sneakers that looked like Nike, but they were called Go Rillas. I got teased for them. I know what it’s like not to fit in.”
The compassion she brings to her role as an authority figure has made it easier to deal with the discipline aspect of her job.
“The key is, whether it’s a small or big school, you have to develop those relationships and model respect and they will comply.”
The AP Ambassador club is an organization Carla is proud of. She’s watched the club grow from 15 to 50 members in two years. To qualify, students must be enrolled in Advance Placement or dual-credit courses.
“We don’t want any barriers for students. That’s important to me,” she said. “We’re going to break down those barriers.”
Aside from her responsibilities at Texas High, she is also the region coordinator for Region 8 of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals. Her duties include sending out the nomination forms for the Top Principal award. When the nominations came back, she noticed one with her name on it.
“I called the TASSP and asked what I should do about that,” she said. “They designated someone else to receive them for the committee. I was surprised when they called me to say I’d won.”
Her ability to form meaningful relationships wasn’t lost on her fellow administrators and teachers who were responsible for her winning the honor.
With the changes the world has seen this year, those relationships meant more to the 2020 seniors than any class before it. The COVID-19 pandemic and group gathering restrictions made graduation very different this year.
“We were determined to let every senior walk across that stage, and I was there to congratulate each one of them,” Carla said. “It was very difficult to get through – for two weeks, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., each student had a designated time to show up with their family to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. It was an amazing experience.”
This upcoming year promises to be different, not only because of the ongoing pandemic, but also because of Superintendent Paul Norton’s departure.
“Mr. Norton is a remarkable man, an encourager and leader, and will be greatly missed,” she said. “What I’m focusing on is getting school started. We’re ironing out details to make it as smooth and safe as possible.”
Carla and her husband, Scott Dupree, have one son, 23-year old Davis, who works at CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital and is a student at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
“God had a reason for giving me only one biological child,” she said. “He knew I would have 1,800 more one day.”
(Region 8 consists of the following school districts: Atlanta, Avery, Avinger, Bloomburg, Chapel Hill, Chisum, Clarksville, Como-Pickton, Cooper, Cumby, Daingerfield-Lone Star, DeKalb, Detroit, Fannindel, Harts Bluff, Honey Grove, Hooks, Hubbard, Hughes Springs, Jefferson, Leary, Liberty-Eylau, Linden-Kildare, Malta, Maud, McLeod, Miller Grove, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon, New Boston, North Hopkins, North Lamar, Paris, Pewitt, Pittsburg, Pleasant Grove, Prairiland, Queen City, Red Lick, Redwater, Rivercrest, Saltillo, Simms, Sulphur Bluff, Sulphur Springs, and Texarkana.)