Linda Hernandez loves what she does, but she never expected the fanfare she received when she was recognized with the Paraprofessional of the Year Award.
Hernandez has been with Ector County ISD for 15 years and is currently at Noel Elementary School.
“I started off at Ireland (Elementary) as a part-time aide and then I went to Carver as a full-time aide. That was probably for a couple of months and then I was downtown in the bilingual department for another couple of months and I became a secretary after that,” Hernandez said.
She’s going into her 10th year at Noel as secretary for Principal Jennie Chavez.
Hernandez didn’t know what to think when she saw top executives from ECISD coming into the campus.
“It’s funny because I saw them, but I was busy doing other things and since it was the end of the year, I was trying to close out the year and get everything ready. I saw a couple of them come in and then they had called our nurse in and I thought maybe she was receiving the award, but then they gave it to me I was just so surprised. I didn’t expect it. I didn’t even think I was going to get it,” she added.
Hernandez said she has always worked hard.
“I just love what I do. I’ve been fortunate enough to have great supervisors, great principals. I tried to help them as much as possible, to make things easier for them where I can. That way they can focus on the students and the teachers and where they need to place their main focus,” she added.
Hernandez helps Chavez with parents, students, teachers, budgeting, attendance, payroll, requisitions and ordering.
“I help her with our PTA organization, as well. I’m like a go-between the teachers and her. Sometimes they won’t ask her for things, but they’ll come to me and then I’ll ask her for them. I take a lot of calls for the parents and relay the messages,” she added.
She does a little bit of everything in the office that needs doing.
“It is a big job. There’s two of us and she was out most of the year this past year. She’s ill and so I had to take over some of her duties and it was a tough year this year,” Hernandez said.
That made the recognition even more rewarding.
The students, staff and administrators are what Hernandez enjoys most about her job.
“Ms. Chavez is wonderful. Like I said, I’ve had wonderful leadership here and I’ve been through quite a bit of APs (assistant principals) and principals, so I’ve been very fortunate,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez is from Tulare, Calif. She went on vacation with her grandparents to Mexico and met her husband, who was also visiting Mexico and worked in Odessa.
The couple got married and moved to Odessa. She and her husband, Oscar, have five children, two grandchildren and one on the way.
She went to school in California, but all her children went to school in Odessa. All but one were born in Odessa; one was born in Alpine and they all graduated from college.
“My mom and my brothers live there and my sister. It’s really different. There, as you’re driving in, you can smell the cow manure because it’s all agriculture and farming. Here you drive in and you smell the oil. You can tell when you’re in Texas and you can tell when you’re in California,” Hernandez said.
It was just by chance that she wound up working at ECISD.
“I applied and I was lucky enough to get hired as a part-time magnet aide at Ireland and from there I just kept working my way up. I’ve been offered other places, but I really like what I do at the elementary level. I get a lot of secretaries that ask me how do you do this? How do you do that? I give a lot of the secretaries advice, or I train secretaries. Principals will call to ask if I will train them and I do. The better you are at your job, I think … you can help your principal best,” Hernandez said.
She added that she’s organized. Noel has 473 students in grades three through five.
“You deal with a lot. I also take care of all the computers that are distributed to the students … I know a lot of secretaries don’t take on a lot of jobs. But I just like what I do. I just don’t get tired of it,” Hernandez said.
She added that she wants to thank all the teacher and everyone that gave her this chance to be recognized.
“I’m grateful; grateful for the staff here,” Hernandez said.
Chavez said Hernandez’ award was long overdue and she deserved it this year more than any other since the attendance clerk has been out.
“I can’t believe she hadn’t already gotten it because she’s a very hard worker. She runs the school. I couldn’t do my job without her. She helps a lot and she’s very respected by all the staff … She’s definitely missed when she’s not here because she just helps take care of everything,” Chavez said.
“She’s just very organized. She knows everything, where it’s at, how many devices we have. She’s just very organized and she keeps up with everything, so she helps me a lot,” Chavez added.
