Photo by Victoria Gomez
October brings with it the education issue of Advocate’s print magazine. Every year DISD awards the Master Principal designation to the top 10% of principals in neighborhood elementary schools, high schools and choice schools. In this year’s issue, we showcased the journeys of three East Dallas Principals who have received the designation.
In addition to the three principals the Advocate featured in print, we are shining the spotlight on a fourth principal, who — even though she left the district earlier this year — made an impact during her time at Mockingbird Elementary. Let’s get to know her.
Former Principal Margaret Huff
Mockingbird Elementary, Master Principal 2022-2023, 2023-2024
How did you get into education?
I started after graduate school at the University of Kansas. I saw that there was a need, what I noticed in my experience there, I had a lot of students coming in, specifically from inner city Chicago at that time, who are like, failing and not doing well. And I was like, “Man, this is just unfortunate. What can be done prior to them getting into higher ed and even getting further behind.” So I was like, “Well, I want to be part of the solution, and perhaps take a step back from higher education into the K through 12 system.” And I was really passionate and on fire for that. And I decided to apply for TFA (Teach For America), and I was placed. I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, so I came back, you know, home to Dallas, and I loved it since.
How did you begin your journey to administration?
I operate really well when I have autonomy and I love creating, I love innovation. I started a lot of unique programs, specifically gifted and talented (GT) at the middle school level. In middle school GT is through honors classes, but a specific cohort, I created that and taught AVID so that was a lot of fun. And I really got into the idea of, like, “Hey, I think I have a strength in these skill sets,” when I was organizing, like, systematic things for the school, whether it be operational and cultural, because I remember, I think Stockard had 1,200 kids at that time, and we had like 100 plus staff. I was like, “I really enjoy this,” as crazy as most people would think. I was like, “And I’m really good at it, and it’s impacting our school in such a positive way.” And I was like, “Oh, I think I should keep going.”
I think each season of my career, my time as a teacher, I learned how to do things really effectively and efficiently at a system level, instructionally, operationally and culturally. And then as a coach, instruction coach, I learned what it really means to be in a certain leadership. I learned how you influence people as stakeholders through your knowledge, but not lording over somebody and just building relationships. And then after that, what happened? I went to administration.
How did you come to the conclusion that it was time to leave?
I owe a lot of my career success, my career upbringing and growth to DISD. Like I said, I keep going back because I want to give honor to where honor is due. I had people who believed in me and stood behind me, allowed me to be where I was. So I’m eternally and forever grateful for DISD. To be quite frank, I, you know, I’m older. I’m not really that old. I’m almost 40, but the principal work, I know what it takes to be a good principal, and the amount of work that it puts in to be a good principal, and I want to do that well. And although I, you know, I say this, but I was at a good place where I was balancing. I was leaving at 4:00/4:30 p.m. but I also knew the mental and emotional stress that you carry with it. So I want to be honest about that, the mental and emotional stress of being — because one of my strengths is also my challenge. It’s so crazy, right? My strength is that I care so much, and the staff sees it, and, you know, and my people see it, my community sees it. And quite frankly, I’m still hanging out with my community, my parents, because I love them so much. After getting coffee and grabbing dinner, I think that shows the level of relationship that I had with them, that I saw it, saw us, as a partnership, right? However, on the flip side of it, it’s more like a personal thing. I’ve come to the place that I want to be able to prioritize what’s important to me. And being a mom of two young kids — I oftentimes feel like that’s used as a scapegoat — but sincerely, I’ve been fighting this good fight for 15 years and pouring into other people’s kids.
I know what I give — me as a person, right? I was going to get burned out, to be quite frank. I was gonna get burned out and I want to be able to prioritize what was important to me, which was my family and something that allows me to also be a mom, to be able to build my marriage. It was probably one of the hardest things to make.
What advice do you have for other principals?
You need to know who you are, first as a person — as a leader, I guess. I think your person and leader actually go together. I think oftentimes we separate. You need to know who you are. You know “Who’s Margaret Huff?” and I had very clear, firm convictions. And I say that because when challenges come, you go back to your core values of who you are as a leader, mine was like, humility was a huge thing. I’ve been alluding to that integrity. I really believe in building other people up, you know, so knowing who you are as a person, I think, is foundation so you can’t stand because if you don’t, I feel like you’re gonna lead people into confusion.
