New Howe High School Principal has

Only Three Rules

At the end of last school year, it was announced that Howe High School Principal Michael Smiley was leaving for a similar position at Henrietta High School That left the door open for Howe to begin searching for a replacement At the May 19 Howe Board of Trustees meeting, James Teafatiller was accepted and announced as the new high school principal

Teafatiller, who comes from Luling High School in the same position, has four years experience as high school principal and assistant principal at Luling High School He was initially hired there as Behavior Specialist/Teacher in 2009 where he served in that capacity until becoming assistant principal in 2012

Unlike most school administrators, teaching wasn't his career choice - ministry was Born in McKinney, Teafatiller was raised in Garland but entering the sixth grade, the family moved to Winnsboro, Texas where he would later graduate in 1986 From there he went to what was then East Texas State University for a semester before transferring to Panola Junior College It was there that he met his wife Dianne and eventually married her After the wedding, they went back to

Commerce and received their bechelor's degrees in 1990

Upon graduation, they moved to Louisville, Kentucky so that he could attend seminary school Receiving his Master's Degree in Divinity of Pastoral Care and Counseling in 1995, Teafatiller moved to Tennessee to take a youth minister position outside of Chattanooga After starting a family and spending a couple of years in that position, in 1997, he was appointed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to Tanzania in East Africa. The Teafatillers went to Kenya first to learn Swahili and then on to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's capital city Primarily a Muslim community, Teafatiller was there as a Christian youth specialist They stayed there in that position for over three years Their travels them took them to Estonia, west of Russia

"We went from the tropics to what they would call the frozen chosen " said Teafatiller "All of our kids were born in the states before we left, but our youngest was born in Estonia "

It wasn't much longer that the family moved back to the U S where Teafatiller took a pastor position at a small church in Nevada, Texas With Dianne not working at the time, money was tight with the family and he began to think about supplemental options

"I was looking at two different things - education or being an insurance salesman " said Teafatiller "My brother-in-law had been doing that but I said, 'no, that's not for me ' I went to the school and got certified as a special education teacher"

He stayed there for the next couple of years, but then had the calling to go to Singapore where he became the Director of Admissions at a Christian school Teafatiller's wife Dianne had become certified as a business teacher and also worked at the school as the administrative assistant to the director

"The cost of living was a bit much so we decided we'd better come back " said Teafatiller "When we did, we found positions at Luling and we were there for the next seven years before coming here "

At Luling, Teafatiller started out as the special education teacher before becoming the behavior specialist and then on to assistant principal and finally principal

"It's not just stick your toe in to see how the water feels. When we hear the calling, we're all in, let's go " said Teafatiller

In the early part of his time at Luling, he also served as the youth minister at a nearby church before becoming a pastor at different church During the time of his pastoral position, he became an administrator at Luling and the workload of both positions became too much and he became a fulltime educator at that point

"I wasn't able to give the church what they needed and I wasn't able