Cari Martin, M.Ed.

I come from a long line of educators, which really shaped who I am. My mother was a teacher, and my grandfather, who passed away before I was born, was a former band director who became an administrator in Baird, Texas. I watched my mom in the classroom when I was little - she'd ask me to help with bulletin boards or take erasers to the boiler room so the custodian wouldn't have to do all that work. I was a teacher's kid, so I learned so much and saw great teachers as a little kid. I attribute those fundamentals to my mom. But it was also my high school band director, Mr. Martinez, who saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. I was just walking in the hall one day, and he stopped me and said he thought I'd be a good band director. He recognized leadership qualities in me before I recognized them in myself, and that ultimately inspired my entire career path. Music has brought me so much joy in teaching students.

One of the most important things for me is to listen to the people you work with. You know, really listen to what they're saying. Don't just sit there and think that because you're a leader, you're going to do it your way. I believe in collaboration and servant leadership, because I don't believe that just because you're a leader or you're in charge of something, that you have to be arrogant and power-hungry, and that it's all about you - because it's really not. It's about the people under your care, and really listening to them.

I would say that a young woman needs to be able to stand up for themselves. I mean, you don't just sit there and allow somebody to plow over you or to treat you poorly in any way. In my career, there have been moments where I would step in and say exactly how I feel to defend whether it's a student or to defend a program that I was a part of, or just letting a specific boss know, hey, if you decide to go this route, this is what's going to happen. You have to be willing to speak up and advocate for yourself and others.

Right now, there's just a lot of testing that students have to do. If a kid doesn't pass the STAR test, then they're going to have to have some form of remediation and different things like that. Sometimes because of that, a kid has to spend several specific hours to meet those needs. Even if they can't come to summer school, they'll end up having to make those things up during the school year. It's one of those deals where it's just testing - a lot of testing. And while our staff does a lot of collaborative things to support students, with some students it's just difficult.

At work, I genuinely believe that the people you work with are like a work family. If somebody needs something, you're there. For example, if there's a duty that a staff member needed to do but maybe they couldn't, I'd just go fill in. That's just what you do. You don't get upset about those things because people have their own lives. As for my family values, our family is very tight-knit. My husband is an attorney here in Fairfield, and we really help each other. We love to go on vacations and see our extended family. In the summer, we have our little camper trailer and we'll just go on different adventures, or we'll fly somewhere that we've always dreamt of going. We also go to Stephenville to watch different things that my son is doing because he's going to be a coach - he's about to graduate from Stephenville. We're just excited that we're at that point in life where we can have the opportunity to do those things. We like to see historic things and learn - it's kind of random, but we enjoy discovering new places together.