Darlene Denton of Burnet CISD was voted Best School Administrator in the Burnet area in the Locals Love Us contest. Staff photo

Darlene Denton of Burnet CISD was voted Best School Administrator in the Burnet area in the Locals Love Us contest. Staff photo

BURNET — Darlene Denton just can’t turn down a good idea. Even though the annual Diva Dawgs Daddy-Daughter Dance and the first-ever Bulldog Bros Mother-Son Dance hadn’t yet happened, she was already thinking about ways to improve it for 2018 and possibly expand it for another group of kids.
Denton, the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District parent-volunteer coordinator, doesn’t sit down for long, but she’ll occasionally pause for a moment as she hurries around the resource center, or wherever she happens to be.
“I love how the community has really embraced the Parent Resource Center,” she said. “It’s really become not just something the school district recognizes and uses, but the community sees it as theirs as well.”
For her hard work, dedication to parents and community members, and constant effort on behalf of children, she was voted Best School Administrator in the Burnet area in The Picayune’s Locals Love Us contest.
“Oh, I’m just so grateful,” Denton said. “But really, that’s just a reflection of the community and school district. I’m just so blessed to be in such an incredible district.”
The Parent Resource Center provides a wealth of services and programs for the school district and community. Of course, by the name, Denton tries to get as much information in the hands of parents as possible.
She also goes further than that.
A few years ago, realizing that some of the elementary girls were entering a world fraught with challenges she and even their mothers might not have experienced, Denton and other women created the Diva Dawgs program. The program teaches young girls a variety of topics from table manners to community service as well as incorporates middle school and high school girls as mentors.
This year, she helped initiate the Bulldog Bros, a similar group for boys. She just tossed the idea to some men in the community and then stepped away to let them take control.
Denton is active in encouraging reading and started “A Very Marley Christmas” during which she and her dogs tour the BCISD elementary campuses as she reads to the students. Then, every March, she organizes a Dr. Seuss birthday tribute at which community members come in and read their favorite Dr. Seuss book to students while she dresses up as the Cat in the Hat.
Despite her hard work and tireless efforts on behalf of the district, community, parents, and students, Denton didn’t see the Locals Love Us award as hers.
“It really goes back to the school district and the community,” she said. “They just come out and support the resource center and all the school district programs. That’s what make this center so loved and valued.”
daniel@thepicayune.com