With the start of a new school year there is a brand new role in the district high schools called the Associate Principal; Ms. Cynthia Valdillez was selected for this role at Judson High School. The role is a huge addition for the school and benefits us all in a good way. 

“I was very excited for the opportunity to have this shift in my role to work with our teachers to get them prepared  in the classroom,” Valdillez said. 

With the Associate Principal position being a brand new position there are many different roles that Valdillez needs to take on. The new roles consist of being more hands on with the teachers and students. 

“So as Associate Principal it is a lot more of working with the students and kind of being the managerial role. I’m working with the students’ behavior and discipline, and celebrating them when we see them exhibiting Rocket pride, and I really get to work on our master schedule so the big picture of what our teachers are teaching and how they are teaching it. I get to work with a specific department so this year I’ll be working with the social studies team,”  Valdillez said. 

Valdillez works right alongside Principal Mendoza as an extension and helps fill in where she is needed. 

“I am a big collaborator with Principal Mendoza, so wherever or whenever he needs me to jump in I just follow his lead. Also I love collaborating with him and our leadership team and it’s a one team one fight however we can promote Rocket pride,” Valdillez said. 

The school is benefiting from the new position by having an extra administrator to speak to and having another set of hands to overview and discuss final decisions being made.

“The school is benefiting by having an additional person to talk to and to run ideas by. Being the principal of a 6A school is a never-ending job and trying to have a really good conversation with Mr Mendoza can be difficult to schedule, and you never know what’s going to happen. He’s definitely the first person that we go to but this is just another person to discuss with and iron things out before it’s presented to him,” Valdillez stated.

Valdillez was excited when she heard about the new position and was ready to apply to further her career in schooling to help her reach her ultimate goal of being a principal one day. 

“I was really excited for the opportunity to grow, and I know that I want to be a principal in the future, and I thought that this would be a really good step to my goal on my academic lateral climb. I had always been on the academic side but in order for me to get an understanding of all of the other parts and knowledge in running a school I would have to apply and get this job,” Valdillez said. 

As she heads further into the school year Valdillez plans to keep the Rocket pride movement alive, and work harder to ensure that students feel safe here and become successful after high school.