Packsaddle Elementary School principal Maela Edmonson is going out on top as she gets ready to retire after 31 years in education, including the past six as the Kingsland campus leader. She’ll also retire as the 2018 Locals Love Us favorite school administrator in the Llano area, voted on by The Picayune readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
KINGSLAND — It would be hard to imagine that anyone gets more excited than Packsaddle Elementary School Principal Maela Edmonson about winning a Locals Love Us award.
“This is so great,” she said after recently learning of the honor.
It was her excitement as she laughed and joked with other Packsaddle staff that clearly showed this was something important to her.
The award pales in comparison to Edmonson’s reason for spending 31 years in education, the last six as the Packsaddle principal.
“It’s the kids,” she said when asked what has kept her in the classroom and school for more than three decades. “The kids are why we come here every day.”
Edmonson’s perspective is one of the reasons The Picayune readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners selected her as their favorite Llano-area school administrator of the year. It’s an honor she’s won in the past, but, each time, it reaffirms to her that the community and parents believe in what she and the rest of the Packsaddle Elementary School staff are doing day in and day out.
“I’m blessed with a great staff here,” Edmonson said.
It’s not just The Picayune readers and KBEY listeners who recognize a great campus leader in Edmonson. The Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association named her the Region 13 TESPAN (elementary school principal) of the Year.
She earned the honor over a host of great campus leaders, including principals from Cedar Park, Leander, and Liberty Hill.
The 2018 Locals Love Us award looks to be her last as a school administrator as Edmonson has decided to retire at the end of this year. It’s hard to count, or even imagine, the number of lives an educator such as Edmonson has touched, shaped, and changed over the past three decades, but her legacy will continue well into her retirement years.
daniel@thepicayune.com
