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November/December 2008
"I am where I am because of what's happened at Luther Jones," says Hoffstadt, who has 35 years' experience in education — the past 12 years at Luther Jones. "The school is who I am."
Hoffstadt graduated with an all-level degree to teach art from Texas State University in San Marcos and started her career as a reading and math resource teacher for first through third graders in Poth, just south of San Antonio. She then returned to Texas State for an all-level elementary education certification. Hoffstadt later taught at Chula Vista Academy of Fine Arts in Corpus Christi ISD, where she was selected as the 1989 Corpus Christi ISD Teacher of the Year and the 1990 Region II Teacher of the Year for the Texas Coastal Bend Area.
Yet after 16 years as an elementary schoolteacher, Hoffstadt wondered if she could make more of a difference as an administrator. She went back to school again to earn master's degrees in curriculum and instruction and in mid-management, entering the world of school administration in 1992. Five years later she became principal at Luther Jones Elementary, where she divides her energy equally between her students and her teachers.
"You can be a great administrator but once the teachers close the door, it's up to them," she says. "I believe our job as administrators is to help them become better teachers, and I want to do my best for them."
Her best has resulted in many accolades for the school, its students and staff. Luther Jones Elementary has been recognized as a National PTA School of Excellence and a Best of the Best Elementary School in the Coastal Bend. It was also one of two schools selected to participate in the Texas Education Agency's Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project and one of 38 Texas Pathfinders' Collaborative Elementary Schools. Moreover, Luther Jones was the only Exemplary Mentor Elementary School in Region II.
As the first nationally certified Principal Mentor in Texas and a lead trainer for the National Principal Mentor Certification Program, Hoffstadt has traveled as far as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to train principals in leadership skills.
Hoffstadt's drive comes from troubled beginnings. Her parents divorced when she was 10, her mother was an alcoholic and, at one point, she lived in four cities in less than a year. Those years were a struggle, yet they have distinctively informed who she is today and the kind of educator she wants to be.
"I realized what kids go through - how so much of what's in their hearts affects how they work in school," she says. "That's probably the most motivating factor for me, because we don't know in the classroom what's going on at home. I was abused and no one knew that. I look at every child as one of my own; if I can provide one safe haven, if I can be positive, the whole environment is positive."
Banner phrases such as "Don't say don't" and "Why say why?" have become school mottos at Luther Jones Elementary.
"I tell the students that we're the ones who decide what kind of day we're going to have, and that it's easier to choose to have a good day than a bad one," she says. "Adults are the same way; we just need to be reminded of that."
Hoffstadt brings that same happy attitude to her personal life. She has been married for 24 years to her husband, Dave. When she's not at school, she volunteers as a clown at a children's hospital. She enjoys fishing off the family's flat-bottom boat and beach time with daughter, Michael, a student at Baylor University, and son, Chase, a senior in high school who will graduate exactly 40 years after Hoffstadt did — and from the same high school in Corpus Christi.
She has finished the coursework for her doctorate in education; all that's left is the dissertation (on mentoring principals), which she hopes to finish by the end of 2009.
"As a teacher, I always wanted my class to be fun so the students would want to come back and see what we're doing next," she says. "It's a constant raising the bar.
I always say that change is inevitable, but growth is optional. There's always another growth opportunity."
AMY E. LEMEN is an Austin-based freelance journalist who also writes for Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman, Luxury Living and Sherman's Travel.
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