It’s not typically that you simply get to listen to from the individual whose identify is on the constructing on the official dedication of a brand new college, however an viewers of about 400 received to expertise it lately at Almeta Crawford Excessive Faculty.
Retired trainer Almeta Crawford spoke at size from the stage of the brand-new auditorium within the 500,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art college that occupies a full metropolis block.
“So right here we’re in a constructing that can accommodate the way forward for the world,” Crawford stated. “Our college students transcend Fort Bend, past the classroom, they’re all over the place!”
She reminisced fondly about her days within the classroom as an educator, a profession that spanned virtually 50 years. Forty of these years have been spent in Fort Bend ISD -primarily at Dulles Excessive Faculty.
“My happiness was to be within the classroom and placed on a present, ha!” she stated, eliciting fun from the viewers, that included her daughter and sons. Nothing might maintain Crawford away from her college students. “When the physician instructed me I had breast most cancers and I wanted to return for radiation each morning, I didn’t go house to relaxation or sleep afterward because the medical doctors instructed me,” Crawford stated. “I instructed them, ‘I’m headed as much as Dulles Excessive Faculty the place my college students are ready for me.’ That was a part of my therapeutic. It was medicinal.”
FBISD Board President Judy Dae learn from Crawford’s favourite poem, “Myself” by Edgar Visitor, reciting lots of the strains in unison with the legendary educator.
“She loves poetry, studying, and singing, however what she loves probably the most is instructing,” Dae stated. “She believed in each single considered one of her college students and clearly her college students believed in her. A whole lot of them reached out and nominated her because the namesake for this campus.”
At one level within the dedication program, Crawford Excessive Faculty Principal Keith Fickel requested for any former college students of the legendary educator to face. Greater than a dozen stood amongst them was present FBISD Baines Center Faculty Principal Elizabeth Williams – only one instance of former pupils who have been so impressed by Crawford that they too turned educators.
Crawford was introduced with commemorative objects from members of Congress who characterize native communities. One was a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol, one other was a certificates of recognition, introduced to Crawford by her daughter on behalf of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner despatched a proclamation declaring October 22, 2023, as Almeta Crawford Day within the Metropolis of Houston.
Crawford’s response to the occasion was summed up by considered one of her favourite sayings, “To God be the glory,” she stated.
Almeta Crawford Excessive Faculty is positioned at 801 Caldwell Ranch Blvd. in Rosharon. It’s the first new highschool to be constructed in Fort Bend ISD in 12 years.
