Motivating minds, uniting communities, establishing character and strengthening bodies. This is the mission of Mannsdale Upper Elementary School, and one its principal, Debra Houghton, works toward every day.
Houghton was recently recognized for her efforts as Mississippi’s 2020 National Distinguished Principal for District Three.
While she has lived in the Jackson metro for the past 11 years, she grew up in Arkansas and lived and worked in Texas and Louisiana.
She began her career in a different field, working for some time as a corporate sales manager for Hilton Hotels and with maquiladora factories in El Paso.
After her children were born, she stepped away from that work to stay home with them.
One day, she went in for a meeting with the new principal at her children’s school to meet her.
“We were just sitting and talking, and she said, I would hire you if you had a degree in education,’” she said.
Houghton was surprised. She asked, “Why? I have never worked with kids and don’t know anything about curriculum.”
“‘She said, but you’re passionate about children. I can teach the curriculum to anyone but I can’t teach passion, and you have passion,’” Houghton said. “That changed my trajectory in life.”
After considering what she said, Houghton ultimately decided to return to school to take the alternate route to teaching. She has taught elementary and middle school students, moving from third grade to sixth grade.
Houghton taught at Germantown Middle before moving to Mannsdale Elementary. When the school was split, she moved to Mannsdale Upper as the principal to open the school five years ago.
She earned her master’s in administration at Mississippi College and recently finished her education specialist degree in curriculum at William Carey University.
Making a difference in the lives of children brought her to education, and Houghton ultimately decided to pursue a position on the administration side of things to continue to make a difference.
“I think it goes back to passion,” Houghton said. “I’m passionate about what I do and believe in the importance of public education. So, I felt like I was making a difference in the classroom, but as I looked around, I thought I could make a bigger difference in administration.”
Her goal has always been to work closely with teachers to achieve a common goal: molding children into great citizens.
“The data is never going to change, which is the fact that the teacher is the biggest difference maker in a student’s education. So, I thought I could go out and work with teachers and make a difference on a different level,” Houghton said.
While she has loved every minute of her five years as Mannsdale Upper Elementary principal, Houghton loves being in the classroom and misses that, so on occasion she will take time to go and teach in the classroom.
Being the principal to open Mannsdale Upper is something that is dear to Houghton.
“It’s like having a baby. You opened it and it’s your baby,” Houghton said.
More than 85 percent of the original staff who worked there when the school first opened its doors are still working there today.
“We have had very little turnover,” Houghton said. “These teachers in this building now, are the same ones who sat down with me and said let’s create a vision and mission for what we want this school to look like and what we want Mannsdale to represent.”
“So, we went with our letters,” she added. “MUES. Motivating minds, uniting communities, establishing character and strengthening bodies. We never wanted it to be about test scores, even though we have fantastic test scores, we wanted it to be about the whole child.”
This is why they have instituted things such as the gardens, leadership clubs, student council and more. The goal being to reach their students in different formats aside from education to create well-rounded children.
“We are creating citizens of excellence, not just test-takers,” she said.
If you were to ask Houghton who has impacted her most throughout her career in education, she would say her family.
Her husband, Charles “Corky” Houghton, is a teacher at Germantown Middle and coach at Germantown High School. They have been married for 31 years. Together they have three adult children.
“I have three kids who are very different in how they learn and how they do things, and they remind me of the importance of seeing every kid,” she said. “I’m reminded me to meet kids where they are and to encourage them to be the best them they can be.”
Each morning, Houghton’s day starts at the gym. Well, it did in a pre-coronavirus world. She has met a friend there each morning for the past seven years. In her free time, she loves to travel and read.
Even her hobbies translate into her career in education, as she said she uses her travel experiences to help expose her students to other cultures and encourage them to see the world. Her reading habits have also changed from fiction to nonfiction, as she typically reads books about leadership.
Houghton will represent Mississippi at the National Association of Elementary School Principals this fall in Washington, D.C. She found out about the award on April 3, as Madison County Schools Superintendent Charlotte Seals and Assistant Superintendents held a carpool parade with signs celebrating Houghton’s achievement.
Last month, she was honored as Mississippi’s Third Congressional District Administrator of the Year, placing her in the running for Mississippi’s Administrator of the Year for the Mississippi Department of Education, the winner of which will be announced in June.
