Texas Border Business
PHARR – The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo (PSJA) Independent School District, in partnership with Texas Tech University, was recently awarded the Principal Residency Grant from the Texas Education Agency of up to $350,000 to support up to five staff members interested in becoming campus Principals.
Only 14 school districts in the state received this grant, which is aligned with PSJA ISD’s goal of growing its own leaders to continue the exemplary academic work the district is known for.
The Principal Residency Grant provides an opportunity for the school districts to increase the number of well prepared, diverse instructional leaders, ready to assume campus leadership positions when they become available.
“We are looking forward to providing this great opportunity that will help us continue to build a sustainable leadership pipeline within the district,” said PSJA ISD Superintendent Dr. Jorge L. Arredondo.
PSJA ISD has identified strong potential principal residents as part of its recruitment and selection process, that will go through the Texas Tech University Master’s in Educational Leadership Program. Texas Tech University serves as the district’s Educator Preparation Program (EPP) partner, which will provide participants with course focused best practices in campus leadership, including instructional leadership with TTU program faculty serving as a mentor.
“Our school board commends the work of our district leadership and grants department for ensuring we continue to seek and secure funding that will help us invest in continuing education and support structures to grow the quality of our future campus leaders,” said PSJA School Board President Jorge Zambrano.
The year-long, full-time residency program will also focus on authentic campus-based leadership experiences in partnership with Texas Tech.
“The ultimate goal of this work is to develop best practices to continue building our own campus leaders here at PSJA ISD,” said PSJA Chief of Academics Dr. Rolando “Rudy” Treviño. “This work will also help empower current leadership to become mentors and thought partners as we build this program to help sustain future growth.”
The grant award period runs from March 9, 2021 to September 30, 2022.
 Independent School District, in partnership with Texas Tech University, was recently awarded the Principal Residency Grant from the Texas Education Agency of up to $350,000 to support up to five staff members interested in becoming campus Principals.){kind=link}