Get to know TASA’s member service representatives One of the many TASA member benefits is access to member service representatives. These former school leaders serve as an extension of the TASA staff, dedicating their time to support individual TASA members in their respective regions. The roles of a TASA member service representative are many, from welcoming new administrators to supporting those who’ve been in their positions for an extended period of time and find themselves in need of a mentor. In each issue of INSIGHT, you can learn all about TASA’s member service representatives, the work they do and how they came to serve. For contact information for all five member service representatives at tasanet. org/about/tasa-staff. We continue our series with John Fuller, TASA member services representative for regions 7, 8, 10 and 11.
R
etirement hasn’t come easily to John Fuller. He first tried in 2011, retiring as superintendent of Wylie ISD after 41 years of work in public education, with 33 of those years spent in a superintendent’s office, including those in San Marcos CISD, Muleshoe ISD and Wells ISD. After one year and one day of retirement, Fuller was called back into service, returning to serve as interim superintendent of Mineola ISD for another three years.
own kingdom, my own little place to make sure my students were learning,” Fuller says. “When I became principal, I realized there were 20 kingdoms, not just one.” As a superintendent, those kingdoms expanded, and Fuller answered the call, learning that leading an entire district was a whole new adventure. “When I was asked, ‘What’s the difference in a superintendent and a principal?’ I said,‘Oh, that’s easy. It’s the unknown.’”
Fuller’s original life plans didn’t involve public education, but another public-serving career. He graduated from Dallas Baptist Dr. H. John Fuller Fuller was a natural fit for educational University with a premedical undergraduate Regions 7, 8, 10 and 11 leadership, which makes it no surprise degree. However, he was in DBU’s very first that he found himself called back to serve. Mineola ISD premed class, and wound up falling short of the required wasn’t the only group that came calling after Fuller’s initial scores to get into medical school. But he had a strong founattempt at retirement. JohnnyVeselka,TASA’s former execudation in math and science, and he’d worked as a tutor tive director, also reached out to Fuller in 2011, asking him throughout his time in school, so he found a teaching posito serve the organization as a member service representative. tion without issue. “Once I got into education, I know it was where I needed to be,” Fuller says. After three years as a classroom teacher, Fuller moved into administration, serving as a principal for four years. He credits being in the right place at the right time, but at the tender age of 30, he was tapped to take the helm in Wells ISD, when the district found itself in need of a new superintendent. “I was asked, what’s the difference between a teacher and a superintendent, and I said when I was teaching, I had my
30
INSIGHT
“I told him I would love to be reconnected with all the great educators in the state,” Fuller says.“And that’s what keeps me going now. I’m 72, and some people ask why I’m still doing this. It’s because I not only love the profession — I love the people in the profession.”
