From TCISD Public Relations Department
Jerilyn Johnson knew she wanted to be a librarian, even as a first-year teacher at the Early Childhood Learning Center in La Marque. But the school didn’t have the position, and it would mean going back to school for a graduate degree, something she’d thought about but hadn’t had the courage to pursue.
The thought persisted, though, and a few years later while teaching at Kohfeldt Elementary, opportunity struck when several librarian positions came open as Texas City ISD took on the annexed La Marque schools.
“I was going back to school to become a librarian,” Johnson says. “I thought I may not get a job now, but I’m not going to miss out on another opportunity in the future.”
But when newly named La Marque Elementary principal Sharon Williams, who had served as Johnson’s principal at Kohfeldt, struggled to find a librarian for her school, she turned to Johnson. As long as Johnson was enrolled in school to become a librarian, she could be hired. So she applied, and got the job.
It’s something Johnson says she is so thankful for.
“I was able to go to graduate school to be a librarian while being a librarian,” she says. “I feel like I was able to learn and put more things into practice right away as a result and I was able to understand everything better because I was actually doing it.”
It’s a perfect job for someone who’s most prominent memory of a teacher growing up in La Marque schools is about books and reading. The first teacher to make an impression on her was her third grade teacher at Westlawn Elementary, who she says used to read to the class every day after lunch.
“And then our first year (at La Marque Elementary), we were at Westlawn, where I went to school, so full circle,” Johnson says. “I was where God wanted me – in the library.”
Johnson says she’s looking forward to the future at the newly renamed Simms Elementary as students and staff await the completion of their new school. But whether the building is old or new, one thing will remain the same – the feeling of family.
“Teaching in La Marque, it always feels like a family; I feel at home,” she says. “They say you bleed blue and gold; it’s in my blood. I love the students and being able to give back what was given to me and to love these kids the way I was loved and provide them the education they deserve.”
