Kyle Elementary School’s Elaine Meyer, now joining the district’s retired ranks, had a few special days of sharing hugs and smiles with the school year’s conclusion. As always, the widely-loved principal pressed her professional guidance combined with genuine human warmth through her last day with her students. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by TIM SAVOY
Special to the Hays Free Press
For more than three decades, and for virtually all of her 34-year education career, Principal Elaine Meyer has been a mainstay at the Kyle Elementary School campus. On Monday, she announced her retirement.
“Congratulations to Elaine. She has served the children of Kyle Elementary with great talent and heart,” said Hays Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Lyon. “Elaine has taught generations of families at Kyle Elementary and has built a tradition of care and love for children there.”
Meyer has deep roots in Hays County. She is a 1974 graduate of Hays High School and her father, Fritz Anton, served on the HCISD school board in the mid-1970s.
After graduating from then Southwest Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Meyer began her teaching career in 1977 in a second grade classroom in the Deer Park Independent School District near Houston. Just two years later, she was hired at Kyle Elementary to teach migrant reading classes to kindergarteners through third graders for the 1979-1980 school year. At the time, HCISD had a total of 2,291 students compared with more than 15,300 today.
From 1997 to 1999, Meyer worked as an HCISD exchange teacher with Southwest Texas State, mentoring and supporting first-year teachers as they worked on master’s degrees. During that same time period, Meyer earned her Master’s Degree in Education. In 1999, she was hired as the Kyle Elementary assistant principal. In 2001, she was hired as principal. Sixty-four staff and faculty members, nearly everyone on campus, signed an endorsement letter asking the district to hire her as principal.
“We the faculty and staff have the utmost confidence in Mrs. Meyer. Her leadership, focus, and vision are essential to the success of our campus,” the letter read. “She has the ability to effectively work with and communicate with students, parents, and faculty.” The sentiment continues today.
Friends and colleagues will host a retirement reception in honor of Elaine Meyer Wednesday, June 1, 2011, in the Ernest Kimbro Multipurpose Room at Kyle Elementary School.
