This piece is the third in a feature series for National Assistant Principals Week. Read the rest here.
It is the height of spring.
The most delicate of rays are coming down along the side of Assistant Principal Kevin Byrd’s detached garage, hitting the flower bed at just the right angle and infusing the bright tropical lilies and sweet milkweeds with glucose.
Winter is already a distant memory, but still the leftover butterflies linger about Byrd’s butterfly garden, flitting through the clumps of hibiscus, around the outskirts of the pool and past the still sprinkler.
“We get a lot of monarchs and swallowtails,” Byrd said. “That’s kind of a weird thing we do at our house. We just like butterflies, and so we’ve created a whole garden in the back. It’s so nice. The storm knocks it out for a little while, but it always comes back.”
During the freeze in January, Byrd saved four monarch cocoons and released them in early February.
“The caterpillars got confused, I think, because there weren’t a lot of Arctic fronts,” Byrd said. “It’s all been Pacific this year, and so they were still hanging around, laying eggs.”
Whether with chilled butterflies or with students and staff, Byrd prioritizes being helpful. He considers it both his daily motivation and the reason he moved into education after starting off as a Business major.
“My dad was an accountant and I thought I wanted to do that,” Byrd said. “And then I got into business and I was like, ‘No, I don’t like it. It’s not for me.’ I had this psychology class about that same time and we got paired with a kid out of middle school. Part of the class included weekly visits with the student, helping him through whatever it was that he needed help with, tutorial-wise or just being somebody that he could talk to that was older. I was like, I think I like doing this.”
Afterward, Byrd reached out to his old high school teachers and coaches and listened to their experiences, which ultimately led him into teaching. Before arriving at Clements in 2007, he taught at a small-town high school.
“Our superintendent was much more accessible than ours, because we were so small,” Byrd said. “His office was across the parking lot from the high school. We attended the same church as him, and he was actually our Sunday school teacher. He would always say, ‘Pick a point. When you drive past it, you become dad, husband, friend, and when you come back over it, you turn back into teacher, principal, coach.’”
Even now, Byrd holds the practice close to heart. His landmark of choice is the Brazos River, and he said it gives him “some time to process things” while driving to and from school. To better separate work from family life, Byrd tries not to take his computer home unless necessary.
“I don’t get on my email unless it’s Sunday evening at 9:30 and everybody else is in bed, asleep already, and it won’t distract from family,” Byrd said.
On the way to work, Byrd listens to music, generally dated in the 90s when he grew up, like Weezer. He enjoys some current artists like Faye Webster, specifically her originals that are more “mellow and kind of folky”.
“I generally get here about six o’clock every morning,” Byrd said. “First thing I do is I check the fire alarm system to make sure there weren’t any kind of issues overnight. I make sure that the chiller is on and working so the air is moving in the building. Then I sit down and I do the attendance stuff, run reports for the other APs. And then I go to the bus ramp at 6:50 and I’m out there ‘till 7:30. Then I do a loop around the building to check all the exterior doors to make sure they’re locked.”
Up until dismissal, Byrd narrows his scope to attendance, discipline, and security while squeezing in some time to check on his assigned department (foreign language), which he is particularly fond of.
“There’s so many unique perspectives, so many unique people, so many people that haven’t been in the United States or Texas for a long time, and then they come here, and despite all the differences that they may have, we’ve always worked here at Clements,” Byrd said. “People talk about diversity all the time and how important it is, and that’s never more evident than here at Clements.”
Out of the 16 years Byrd has spent at Clements, one of his favorite memories is back during his first year as a coach, when the varsity football team made it to the fourth round of playoffs against Katy High School for the regional finals.
“It was at Rice, and our side was just as packed as their side,” Byrd said. “To see the community of Clements from all of the years previously come out, the student body, the staff, everybody was there, it was just an amazing experience. The game didn’t turn out how we would have liked it. But just to see the community and to have the kids on the team be able to run out the tunnel to thousands upon thousands of people cheering for them was pretty phenomenal. It just showed you the community.”
It is Byrd’s fourth year back as an administrator; in between, he spent two years at Waller High School as an Assistant Principal. According to Byrd, it was “tough not being around.”
“I’m not a person that sits around in places they don’t like, like in my personal life, if I go somewhere and I don’t like it, I’ll just leave,” Byrd said. “But I’ve been here for 16 out of 18 years. I think it is, it’s definitely the best public school in the city of Houston area. I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else.”
Gratitude notes from those who know Byrd best:
Principal Tara Baker: “Byrd has taken our student safety and staff safety to the next level. He is one that is most passionate about that, which is a non-negotiable for us as a campus. You know, instruction is important, but safety is the most important when it comes to the emotional and physical health of the students, and he’s really led the cause to try to encourage a safe environment for us.
He is also very witty, even though not everyone sees that side of him. He is very funny and sarcastic in a good way, and so I just know that whoever has the opportunity to see that side of him, he helps make their day better with that piece of it.”
Assistant Principal Ashli Taylor:
“Mr. Byrd and I have worked together for 18 years. We started here at Clements High School together in 2007. We taught English 2 together, and through that time, I really respected him as a teacher. He took his job seriously. He worked with his students to help them improve their analysis and writing skills, but he was also always fun, and the kids enjoyed having him as their teacher, and I enjoyed having him as a co-worker. Fast forward all these years, here we are, assistant principals together. We get to share an office together.
He always says that I’m the youngest sister he never had, and I say that he’s the third older brother I never wanted. He is someone who I depend on, who I consider to be a very dear friend, and someone who I know that I can say anything to and be my just complete true self, because he’s just that person for me.
He loves Clements High School, and I think the thing that he takes the most seriously is the safety of all of us here. Since he came back to Clements as an assistant principal, the safety protocols that we have in place have strengthened, and it’s something that he’s passionate about. But I know the thing that he enjoys the most about our job is our students. He loves nothing more than talking to kids in the hallway, joking around with kids, and just making sure that they’re okay and supporting them however he can.”
One sweet memory I have of him is that after I had my first child and I was on maternity leave, he did a diaper drive where he collected diapers from my students and from coworkers and brought a truck full of diapers to my house when I had this new baby, and I didn’t have to buy diapers for months. And that was just something that he did just to be kind and try to take care of me, so that was really sweet.
We have a lot of hijinks together. His favorite thing is to scare me. He often tries to jump out of places to scare me. It’s his favorite thing. He laughs. He videos himself scaring me and then shows it to me later. But one time, I thought that he was in a faculty restroom, and so I waited outside the door to scare him, and then when the door opened, I jumped out to scare him, and it was a teacher who was very confused about why I was jumping out in the hallway to scare him. Mr. Byrd watched it happen from down the hallway, and it was his favorite thing that happened that year.”
Administrative assistant Brianna Russell: “This might come as a shock to some people because Byrd has such a hard exterior, but he’s so funny. We have great banter and we also communicate very well, and it’s been really fun. I know that’s not a word people would associate with him, but it’s been a lot of fun, actually, working with him.
Anytime he comes in in a grumpy mood, and he’ll just fire off little sayings here and there or little quotes. And whenever I catch them and he catches me and he’s like, ‘You’re a little young for that.’ And I’m like, ‘oh no, I know things too, get outta here.’ Those are probably my favorite memories.”
Geography teacher Christine Badillo: “I think Mr. Byrd is a very interesting admin. When you first see him, he’s tall, he’s bald, he’s sarcastic. You’re like, ‘Hmm, how do I read this guy?’ But when you really get to know him at his heart, he loves what he does, he loves the kids here, he wants Clements to be the best place for the staff, for the students.
Being in charge of things like school safety and the building use as Clements falls apart is a really hard job. I think he does a great job balancing that, dealing with sometimes disgruntled employees and disgruntled students. Having to enforce that kids can’t open doors and having to enforce the new fire marshal’s rules, he puts up with a lot, but he does it because he wants Clements to be the best and safest place possible. And his sarcasm does bring a humor to the environment.”
Soccer coach and OLABs teacher Dallas Killingsworth: “His biggest strength for us is definitely what he’s most in charge of, which is the safety of the building. And he is on top of that just about every second of the day, whether or not students and teachers know it. So he brings comfort and security to the building, but also I think he looks out for kids and staff equally. He tries to make sure that we’re all comfortable and having a good day, and he’s always visible.”
I used to coach with him several years back when he was a football coach here. And I would say at first he was very scary as a new teacher, because he was the offensive coordinator that I worked under. But just a few weeks into it, I got to know him a whole lot more and just knew him as a really serious football coach but an awesome friend outside of football.”
Economics teacher and golf coach Jason Jezek: “He kind of seems like he’s real tough and he’s kind of got that look that he’s always scowling, but he’s actually really funny. Definitely loves the kids a lot. Loves to see the kids succeed and one thing he also really cares about is that he just wants to make sure everyone is safe. He’s actually got a really good sense of humor, loves hanging out with the kids, and I think he’s been great for this school.
Sometimes when he’s having a day when we’re talking and he says, ‘I can’t wait to put this in my memoir or in my book,’ and it just always cracks me up because he always says, ‘This will be a doozy.’ He’s a great friend and just glad I get to see him as much as I do.”
