PRESIDENT PROFILE
Texas Association of Secondary School Principals
Devin Padavil of Frisco ISD reaches out to lowperforming students by Dacia Rivers
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Lebanon Trail High School Principal Devin Padavil poses with volleyball player Kay Chi Pua.
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evin Padavil was not a star student in his high school days, finishing up his senior year with a 1.6 grade point average. But a lot can change in 20 years, and today Padavil is principal of the recently opened Lebanon Trail High School in ever-growing Frisco ISD. It wasn’t a straight shot from point A to point B for Padavil. He received his doctorate in education from the University of Texas at Austin, has served as principal at three Texas high schools, and was elected to serve as 2016-17 president of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals. It’s an impressive, uphill climb that Padavil says would not have been possible for him without teachers and administrators who helped him realize that he could turn his school performance around and be successful in reaching his goals. “I owe an incredible debt to those teachers and principals that I had when I was in high school,” Padavil says. “And I always think of my career as paying that debt back.”
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Texas School Business MARCH / APRIL 2017
Being an under-performing high school student himself has helped Padavil by giving him insight into the students he now serves as principal. He feels drawn to helping unmotivated and academically disadvantaged students by giving them the support they need to be successful in school. “It’s my mission to help them be just a little bit better than they are,” Padavil says. “Sometimes they need encouragement and sometimes someone just needs to be pushed a little bit more. Those students always stand out to me; and they are the ones that really need us.” Padavil is dedicated to not just helping students, but working with the teachers at LTHS so that they can do their best to drive achievement as well. > See TASSP President Profile, page 24