This piece is the fifth in a feature series for National Assistant Principals Week. Read the rest here.

The New Year’s sky was dark with cold, rushing wind. Atop a high rise building, a younger Assistant Principal Shannon Gray was performing her jazz routine with her dance team, in a black and gold uniform and pair of streamers. 

“There was a Gloria Estefan song,” Gray said. “‘The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You’ or something. That was a big song. We did our jazz routine too. We performed for the Cowboys, the Rockets. We were in the Tom Landry Parade. We always were in the Cotton Bowl Parade.”

Once a year, Gray will have a reunion with her college dance team. Although she formally did ballet, she was also trained in jazz, tap, and pointe.

“We performed for the president, not George W. Bush, but his father when he was in office,” Gray said. “That was back in ‘90. George W. Bush was the governor of Texas at the time and we performed at a political rally for that.”

For a long time, Gray thought she would be a dance instructor, particularly during high school, when she was an officer on the dance team.

“I danced from the time I was four until I was about 21,” Gray said. “So, I’d always thought that I would maybe go that route.”

However, she wound up in the business world post-college, and after about 10 years, decided she wanted to return for her teaching certificate, Early Childhood (EC) 4-8. 

“I took three graduate classes from the University of St. Thomas,” Gray said. “I would go two nights a week and then all day on Saturday for about six months. And then I did another year of observation and some more class time. It was a lot more intense than what is offered now.”

Although the two careers are vastly different, Gray was able to apply some knowledge from her management role to education. Her first semester of teaching was at Fort Settlement Middle School. She came in January, mid-year, to fill the spot for a teacher on medical leave.
“Fort Settlement’s a great community,” Gray said. “I know that many of the students here have gone to Fort Settlement. I have many friends that are still actually there. That was a great experience. I’ve been very blessed that I’ve worked with great administrative teams all throughout as a teacher and as an administrator. So I’m very thankful for that.”

In total, Gray has been with Fort Bend ISD her entire 24-year career. She started her administrative career in 2014 after joining a two-year cohort through the University of Houston during her graduate degree. Shortly after, Gray helped open Neal Elementary near Harvest Green.

“It was fun to be part of that process, to see it [go] from the blueprints to walking through every stage of building the school [and] getting to work with the local elementary to come up with the mascot and the colors for the school,” Gray said.

In the end, the kids voted for the Neal Longhorns, which Gray was “personally more excited about” compared to the Armadillos.

“It was very interesting opening a new school, but I think it’s also prepared me because we’re going through that process of rebuilding Clements in the next couple of years,” Gray said. “But I was really wanting to go back to secondary, so that’s what brought me back to Clements.”

This is Gray’s fifth year at Clements. She started in the fall of 2020, during which the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak.

“The first nine weeks we only didn’t have any kids because everybody was online,” Gray said. “After that, from the second nine weeks till the end of the year, we only had about 500 kids on campus. It was very different, but I got to learn the ins and outs of the school. But I was much happier when everybody was back on campus the next fall.”

Gray said it’s also been “very interesting” to see how technology has evolved since the time she was in school.

“I’m just in awe of what all there is,” Gray said. “When I was in school or even early into my education career, we didn’t have all the electronic resources that are available now. When I had to do a research paper in college and high school, we had to go through the card catalog, get on microfiche, and take notes. I had stacks and stacks and stacks of note cards. Even when I taught English for the first couple of years, they’d have to do a research paper and the kids would have to have so many note cards. I don’t even think they even do that anymore.”

Currently, Gray specializes in emergent bilingual students testing for the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). She works with volunteers, schedules staff and community meetings, and catalogs substitutes. She also oversees the math department, as well as Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and a portion of Physical Education (PE). Her biggest role, though, is managing the end of students’ high school journeys.

“I’m in charge of graduation, and so I plan all the things for the senior class,” Gray said. “This is my busiest time of year because we’re getting ready for graduation and there’s prom, and we have senior trip and senior sunset that is mainly hosted by Student Council. But there are things that we coordinate together to try to enhance the experience.”

Gray’s day starts with feeding her two Weimaraners, Cooper and Myla.

“They’re quite spoiled, but they’re good dogs,” Gray said. “I leave my house probably by 6:15, so I get here about 6:45, and I’m checking with Ms. Hayes because she gets here early to see how the day looks. This time of year is particularly busy with substitutes and with coaches and teachers being out for different events, so I make sure that we have coverage.” 

Depending on her calendar, Gray spends most of her day either in admin meetings or monitoring teacher classrooms, which she said she “likes more than anything else.”

“You can tell teachers that are very passionate about education and teaching and whatever their content is, and it’s very interesting to me,” Gray said.

After school, administrators will often attend sports games or alternative events. If there are no assigned duties, Gray often attends a group workout and cooks dinner for the family.

“I try to be in bed by 9:30, but it just depends on the day,” Gray said. “I do love HGTV, all the home improvement kind of things. I’ll take my dogs for a walk. I have to do it separately because they’re both very strong, so I can’t take them at the same time.”

To relieve external stress, Gray enjoys reading and spending time outside, especially in spring moving into summer. Occasionally, Gray will also go to dinner or concerts with friends. For the most part, though, her fulfillment comes from seeing students’ gradual improvement.

“I’m excited to see the growth in students from freshman to senior,” Gray said. “I love working with the seniors. Just excited for them, what the future holds. It’s just a fun year for them and I want to celebrate them as they move forward beyond Clements High School.”

Gratitude notes from those who know Gray best:

Principal Tara Baker: “We have deemed Mrs. Gray the nice one of our administrative group, because she is just extremely nice and caring and thoughtful. She is one that if there is a celebration to be had, she’s going to make sure that that person feels very special in their moment, and I just think that’s important because our job as educators is very hard at times, and she helps just celebrate the small wins and the big wins.”

Assistant Principal Ashli Taylor: “Mrs. Gray is one of the kindest people I know. We always joke amongst us that she’s the nicest one of all of us and then we try to have contests to prove that we’re nicer than she is, but really she does have the kindest heart. When she’s your friend, she’ll do anything for you. She’s incredibly loyal, she goes out of her way to make sure that you’re doing well and if she perceives that there’s something you need, even if you haven’t vocalized it or even possibly thought that you yourself need it, she’ll find a way to meet that need for you and just she just wants to help and just make things better. That’s just who she is.

She’s also the classiest person I know. There’s a lot of staff that tell her jokingly, like ‘I want to be like you when I grow up,’ because she’s poised, she’s polite, and she just always seems to have it together;, and she is one of my favorite people.

We’ve had a lot of fun together. It’s often because she and I are the only female assistant principals, and we’re outnumbered by the male assistant principals, and so we often joke that it’s us versus them and we have to stick together to make sure they don’t take over.

All the cute Clements High School shirts we have are from Ms. Gray, so whenever someone compliments one of my CHS shirts I always say, ‘Well, if it’s cute, it came from Ms. Gray.’ For example, this one I’m wearing today, when I was leaving the house this morning my husband asked about it. I said, ‘Oh yeah, Shannon got us these.’ He’s like, ‘I already knew that.’

When she has an opportunity to do something nice, she just tries to include as many people as you can: counselors, assistants, everybody. She just wants to make sure everybody feels included. It’s something special because that’s just who she is. I don’t know how else to put it, like it’s in her nature to be kind to others and just try to make them happy and feel special.

When I’ve had any kind of issues on my own, like with my children or things like that, she’s super supportive and wants to talk through it and always has excellent advice. She gives the best advice, and then afterwards, she’ll remember a week or two later to circle back and be like, ‘Well, how was that?’ or she’ll text and say, ‘How did it go?’ or she’ll call. 

She brings little gifts for my daughter, like she just like randomly brought her a little necklace one day and my daughter thinks that Ms. Shannon is just the best. She just loves her.

Administrative Assistant Jana Hayes: This is my third year here at Clements, but prior to Clements, I was at Neal Elementary, which is where Ms. Gray was AP prior to being here. When I worked with her over there, I wanted to get back into being the secretary, so when she found out that this position was opening, she brought me along. When I started with the district in 2019, I was actually a floating para position, and then I started working over there. Within a month, I had  been hired to stay there. Her and I bonded very quickly. She took time to find out about me and what my interests were and where I wanted to go within the district. When she found out that this position here was coming open, she knew I had the background for it and reached out to me, and it all worked out.

The last three years, I’ve been able to be with her, which has been a pleasure. Again, [she] takes the time to get to know you, knows about your family, asks about everybody, makes sure everybody’s good, including everybody here in the office, checks in every morning. She is just an absolute wonderful person to work with.

We often bond over children. We have children that are a similar age. My daughter got married a couple years ago, and her first grandbaby is on the way. She was the first person I texted, because I knew she would be excited for us.

She is probably one of the most pleasant people I’ve ever worked with. When she says kindness matters, she truly means it. She makes sure every staff member, every child is in a good place, and that everybody is taken care of. She backs me up with everything I do with substitutes. She makes sure I’m okay when she knows I’m a little bit stressed out. There is a placard on her wallet that says kindness matters, and she truly means it. She has a wonderful connection with all the teachers. Even when she’s frustrated, she is always kind first.”

Algebra II and Statistics teacher Michelle Nelson-Archer: “Ms. Gray, she is such a hard worker, but I think what really stands out the most is that she is very compassionate, like she is always coming up and checking on the kids and checking on the teachers, and she just really takes us all in as her family. She celebrates our important life events with us outside of school, and she always wants to check in on us as teachers and know how we’re doing. I know she does the same thing with the kids, and so I really love that about her.

She’s also very authentic with us. She shares with us what’s going on in her life, so we really do know her very well, not just as an AP or a leader or a boss, but as a friend, and I really appreciate that about her. 

She always gives us little sweet cards or treats or sometimes she’ll come up and give the whole math department cookies. She always is very kind and considerate, and I really appreciate that extra time that she takes when she wants to show us how much she cares about us.”

Spanish teacher Andrea Stanescu: “Ms. Gray is the AP that has supported me, and not just in the academic or school-related things, but also on my personal things. She’s been always there for me, and I really appreciate that. She’s not an absent person. She’s not unfamiliar. She’s always involved and doing  amazing, amazing things for everybody. But for me, she’s been one of my supports here at school. We can count on her every time that we have an issue with a student, with someone, we actually can go to her.

A year and a half ago, I had a very hard time in my personal life and she helped me. She was always engaged in asking me how things are going, how this problem is solved. So, yes, that is a very important memory for me.”

Resource teacher Carol Harris: “I appreciate Ms. Gray’s stylish personality. She is a team player. She appreciates her team. She always comes by and checks on you to make sure if there is anything that she can do to help. And she also not only says that she appreciates you, she shows it by bringing items, bringing food, bringing something to show that I appreciate you as a person, whether it was Chick-fil-A, donuts, or something. But she would check on us and say, ‘Here, I bought this for you.’”

Junior Skye Lopes: I’m part of like dance, and we have a performance on the field, and we were performing to the home side. Ms. Gray walked over there, so she could like watch me dance. That was really fun, because it was a big game day.

Because we have the same birthday, we always give each other gifts on that day. This year I gave her a Pandora necklace, which was engraved. It said, there’s always something to be grateful for. So it was in my handwriting, and she got me a Starbucks cup, and a gift card, because I’m  always there. 

I feel like we have a really special and close relationship. We started getting close last year. I didn’t really know her my freshman year, but last year we got really close, and she’s always making like a huge impact on my life, every single day. She’s the reason why I love going to school, and the reason why I hate missing school as well. She’s always there for me no matter what — she always knows when something’s wrong, she can easily tell, and she’s really supportive. She’s supportive in every way, academic-wise, personal life-wise, but also dance, football-wise. She always knows like the right thing to say, and she always knows how to make me feel better as well.

I look up to her so much, and I really pray that I could grow into the person that she is, because she’s really strong, and she has such powerful leadership with a heart that leaves the biggest impact, and I’m always praying for her and thanking God every day for our relationship. When I met her, she became that type of person who would always check in on me and make sure I was okay. She was the first one that ever showed me how cared and loved I was. She’s such a safe person. I feel so safe around her and she really is like a mom to me. She has stepped up a lot.

She’s my biggest motivation and the reason why I want to succeed in life and do good in school and to always keep her in my heart. Whenever there’s a bad day or something, she always picks me back up and she never lets me walk through any situation alone. She’s always there and I’ve never had that adult in my life that would do that. She being that person has made me love her way more because she’s done things that no adult has ever have. She’s been the only one that has like treated me like how I want to be treated.