Floyd_Jackson

=Floyd Jackson= by highlighting the words, then click on File to find a picture on your computer || put a favorite recent picture here by highlighting the words, then click on File to find a picture on your computer ||
 * 1971 || 2011 ||
 * put your senior picture here

Directions: Click behind the colon and/or the bulleted list and add your answers. Erase these directions when you are done

Post High School Education and/or Professional Certification:
Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Texas Christian University, 1975 Master of Education Instruction from West Texas A&M University, 1980 Master of Education Executive Management from West Texas A&M University, 1990 Texas Certified teacher, principal, superintendent Certified Texas Juvenile Probation Officer

Family:

 * Married to (1979) and divorced from (1999) Vicki Lee Summers of Amarillo
 * Domestic partner with Billy Don Caldwell of Fort Worth since 1999; married in State of Connecticut, August 12, 2010
 * Children: Nevin Mark Jackson, age 30, Minister of Youth and Music at Wolfe City, Texas First United Methodist Church; Natalie Jackson-Biffle, age 26, Ph.D. candidate in Political Science from Oklahoma University; member of the faculty at Duke University beginning July 25, 2011
 * Grandchildren: None yet - and in no hurry except for my husband's three grandchildren, by his older daughter Aaron 11, Russell 7, and Layla 2.
 * Parents are both deceased, Mom in 2002 and Dad in 2005. They divorced each other in the middle of our senior year. Each was married to others MULTIPLE times.
 * Sister, Brenda Jackson Butler (PHS '61) now lives in Kerrville; brother Ralph (PHS '65) lives in Amarillo.
 * City #1: Waxahachie, Texas, 1972-1973
 * City #2: Fort Worth, Texas, 1973-1975
 * City #3: Hereford, Texas, 1975-1977
 * City #4: Amarillo, Texas, 1977-1984
 * City #5: Tulia, Texas, 1984-1991
 * City #6: College Station (Snook), Texas, 1991-1994
 * City #7: Buffalo, Texas, 1994-1999
 * City #8: Dallas, Texas, 1999-Present
 * City #8: Dallas, Texas, 1999-Present

Biography: My years in high school were filled with a great deal of turmoil and family violence that few ever knew about. When my parents divorced in December 1970, I was relieved, but I also knew that my system of financial security had just collapsed. Fortunately, I was able to enter Frank Phillips College on a music scholarship. During the time of turmoil, I had become a religious fanatic, of sorts. After one year at FPC, I took off on my own to Southwestern Assemblies of God College in Waxahachie, Tx. There I planned to become the next Jimmy Swaggart. It didn't take long for me to become totally disillusioned and realize I was in the wrong place. My faith did not waver, but I wanted to work with the unchurched instead of the churched. Again, fortunately, I snagged an academic (yes, academic) scholarship to TCU in Fort Worth. I graduated from TCU in May 1975 with a double major (history and English) and a triple minor (music, religion, education). In the fall of 1975, I began teaching at Hereford High School and remained in Hereford two years. In the summer 1976, I began a masters in history at WT. In the summer of 1977 I was hired to teach seventh grade English at Horace Mann Junior High in Amarillo, and inner-city school with some really tough kids. I first talked a student into "put the gun down" during my first year. Also, hired the same time to teach seventh grade math was my future wife. In the 1978-79 school year, I entered a training program for future administrators in Amarillo ISD. July 1979, I married Vicki Lee Summers. We cut our honeymoon short so that I could come back to interview for an administrative job. From 1979-1984, I was Assistant Principal at Crockett Junior High. I changed my course of study and completed a masters degree in education in 1980. In April 1981, our son Nevin was born. In Vicki's seventh month of pregnancy with our daughter Natalie, I accepted a position as Principal of Tulia Junior High School. We moved in her ninth month on our fifth anniversary, 1984. She never forgave me for that one. After four great years as a Principal, the school board named me Assistant Superintendent for Tulia ISD. At this point, I began my second masters degree which I completed in 1990 while also serving as director of music for the First Methodist Church in Tulia and Chairman of the Swisher County Child Welfare Board. In 1991, I was an adjunct instructor of education at WT. July 1991, we moved again, but no child was on the way. I became Superintendent of Schools at Snook ISD near College Station. Snook was a 75% African American and on probation with the Texas Education Agency. At the end of my first year, TEA gave the district a clean bill of health. We remained in Snook until 1994 when Buffalo ISD called and offered me their superintendency based on my reputation in Region VI and the state. So, we shuffled off to Buffalo. Again, I was Superintendent, music director at the Methodist church, and President of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce. I had climbed to the top of the mountain, but decided I didn't like the view from up there. I had lost the inspiration for being an educator: the kids. Politics, school boards, and policies were not why I became an educator. Also, during my time in Buffalo, I began struggling with things that I had always known about myself, but I thought I'd been able to hide. Unable to forgive myself, I attempted suicide in October 1997. Then January 19, 1999, I was driving a new BMW convertible 75 mph on I-35 in Dallas - drunk. I totaled the car and spent that night in the Dallas County Jail. At that point, I decided I had to deal with things or I would eventually, in one way or another, succeed in ending my life. I completed that school year and then resigned from Buffalo ISD and moved to Dallas with nothing except my clothes in the back of my car, a Ford this time. Vicki and I decided to end our marriage. I determined to find my true self. I did! Before school started that year, I was hired by Dallas County Juvenile Department to oversee the education components of eight residential facilities for delinquent youth. I kept that job until February 2007. In August 1999 I met a man from Fort Worth who like I had been married 15 years and had two teen-age daughters. He had divorced in 1995 for the same reasons as I. Billy and I have now been together 12 years. We flew to Connecticut on our 11th anniversary, August 12, 2010, to be legally married in New Haven County on the shore of Long Island Sound. Since 2007 I have been teacher and assistant principal of a private high school in Richardson that specializes in students with Asperger's Syndrome. Billy's and my kids have accepted our relationship and we have become a new kind of blended family. In May 2008 when his younger daughter married, we were co-fathers of the bride. The same was true when my Natalie married in January 2009. As listed above, my son is a United Methodist minister and my daughter (Ph.D. in Dec. 2011) will begin working as a research specialist at Duke University in August. Billy and I are members of Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas. Northaven is part of a national network of Methodist churches that have voted to accept and affirm same sex couples and families. Since high school, it's been quite a journey, but I HAVE found my true self and now live a happy life of dignity and integrity with nothing to hide from myself or anyone else. This is the best time of my life and I'm glad that the only thing in life at which I failed was my attempt to end my life. I've still got things to do, places to go, and people to see.

Current occupation: Best career move? Most embarrassing moment in high school? Forgetting to take my place on stage with the choir on the night of graduation, then jumping up and running on stage as the curtain was opening.
 * Assistant Principal and Minority Share Holder of The Alexander School, Richardson, TX
 * The Alexander School is a college-preparatory, private high school
 * There have been many and they have all been good because they led to the next one: being Superintendent of Schools in two Texas school districts; being Director of Education for Dallas County Juvenile Department; working at my current school helping "learning different" students achieve their dreams of high academic achievements and college acceptance.

Most embarrassing moment since high school? Being arrested DWI in 1999 in Dallas after totaling a new BMW converitble on I-35.

Best memory of living in Phillips and Phillips High School? Knowing everyone in school and in town. This was both an advantage and (at times) a disadvantage.