HOUSTON – Oct. 15, 2020 – Members of the Spring ISD Board of Trustees had the unique opportunity, during this week’s regular board meeting, of honoring two Spring ISD employees each celebrating 40 years of service in the district as of 2020.
Mary Sneed retired this year from Northgate Crossing Elementary School, where she served as campus librarian. She first joined Spring ISD in 1979 at Bammel Elementary School, proceeding to teach across several elementary grade levels at Bammel and later at Jenkins Elementary School, where she transferred in 1983.
In 2007, Sneed joined the staff at Northgate Crossing Elementary School as the school librarian. She initially retired in 2012, only to answer the call to return to Northgate Crossing as the school’s part-time librarian after a short hiatus. There she put in five-and-a-half additional years before again retiring earlier this summer.
“We are so proud of you and thankful for your service,” said Mark Miranda, Spring ISD’s executive chief of district operations.
Sneed’s principal at Northgate Crossing, Kristi Brown, also spoke to her commitment to children over her long career and her passion for inspiring students to read. “Mary is the kind of employee that a principal dreams about having,” Brown said. “She was our librarian but she was so much more than the keeper of the books.”
The meeting’s other employee service award went to Pamela Kirby, who also first came to the district as a member of the faculty at Bammel Elementary School, which she joined in 1980. Following Bammel, she went on to spend time on the staff of Winship, Clark and Anderson elementary schools before making the transfer to special services as a dyslexia teacher in early 2000.
This fall, after 40 years spent in the district, Kirby switched to half time for the 2020-21 school year, but she remains a current employee and a dedicated advocate on behalf of students with special learning needs.
“She doesn’t really like accolades, but I would like to say, as her supervisor, she’s vital and valuable,” said Ty Bailey, the district’s coordinator of dyslexia services. “She’s very dedicated to student learning. As a dyslexia teacher, she’s very passionate about struggling readers. She’s all about the students, and we appreciate her as a teammate. I’m so, so blessed to be able to work with her.”