Collins is transforming Pietzsch MacArthur from a traditional elementary school to Beaumont ISD’s first hybrid school with elementary and middle school, Pre-K through 8th grade.

“Anytime I’m asked to speak about my campus and my kids it brings me great joy,” Audrey Collins. Audrey Collins first discussed how she came to be the principal at Pietzsch MacArthur (PMac). She had served in all job capacities at one campus for 15 years. She was a substitute, a teacher, curriculum coordinator, assistant principal and then principal. She was comfortable but didn’t realize it. Her boss at the time, Dr. Frank, asked her to move to PMac to be the principal. It was scary but became a “blessing in disguise.” However, she admits the change was a shock. She was learning new systems and new people and following Anita Frank who was a very competent leader. But from the beginning she focused on “what was good for the kids.” “I took the focus off me and why I was being moved and looked at the 900-plus PMac Cougars and what was best for them.” Collins came to realize that PMac didn’t need her as much as she needed them. The work she has done over the last five years there has shaped her into who she is today. “If the shift had not happened, I may not be the instructional leader that I’m growing into at this point, because sometimes you get comfortable and sometimes change has to come to shake your world up. If you put the right perspective on it it will pay off in dividends. The right perspective is my kids.” Collins calls all the kids, “my babies,” even the big 7th graders who have been with her since they were 2nd graders. She tries to learn everyone’s name, all 1000 of the students. Each day the work revolves around the kids One of Collins’ mottos when she interviews someone or hires someone is: Come to work and work, and we work for kids.

“We don’t do what’s comfortable for adults. Any time we start an initiative, any time we do a change, the first question ... I ask is how will it benefit the students. Not how does it make my job easier but how it benefits kids because, in the end, that’s why we are there each day.” In 2020 before the pandemic, Dr. Frank suggested the hybrid model, keeping the 5th graders for the 6th grade and beyond, basically establishing a hybrid school which would be Beaumont ISD’s first. The building next door to PMac was suggested as an option for the expansion. Parents were pleased with the expansion/hybrid idea as long as Collins was retained as the principal for both campuses. “When you’re in the right place, you don’t have to do a lot,” said Collins. “That just solidified that I was in the right place, doing the right work.”

The sixth graders have a non-traditional program with no more than three teachers. They spend most of their time in instruction instead of changing classes, walking the halls, etc. Collins said all of that transitional time between classes adds up over the course of a school year when students need more developmental time in the classroom. This set schedule provides more structure, a homeroom teacher to connect with every morning and minimal movement throughout the day. All kids and parents were happy even through the pandemic. This year, the seventh grade was added. Seventh graders bring new adventures…more social media, interest in the opposite sex, etc. “In a world right now where things are so uncertain and there are so many unknowns, kids come to the same place for 8 to 10 hours, they are happy and safe.” Collins knows that some kids don’t get told they are loved every morning so she has made it a habit to tell her kids every morning, “I love you.” When kids go home for breaks – summer, holidays – they ask “who is going to tell us they love us.” “When you’re in the right place, it pays off. I tell them that I’m going to say it one last time but they’re going to have to remember it.”

The middle schoolers who transitioned and have an assistant principal requested that someone tell them “they love them” in the mornings. Collins said the first change they made was in the morning announcements to make sure kids heard that they are loved. Collins said the first priority with the expansion was to be sure no matter who was in charge, kids were always first, feel safe and feel loved. “If you can’t establish that, close the doors and go home because kids will first remember how they felt. Our biggest priority is to take care of our kids.” One thing PMac does is make Social Emotional learning a daily practice. They do “check ins” with their kids. Some of the PMac kids come from tough situations, and school becomes that safe place to unload burdens. SEL time provides the opportunity to check in, give hugs and fist bumps and talk about what happened the day before. “We hold this time very sacred.”

The new school name is Pietzsch-MacArthur PreK through 8th Center. The school colors were formerly red and black and are now green and black which gives a nod to South Park. Next year, 8th graders will be added. Kids from 3 to 14 will be in the school. “It’s exciting to see them develop and because you’ve had an instrumental part of instilling core values into them. You see them hang on, and it creates the productive adult we all want them to be.” PMac has started offering robotics with a competition team. They have makerspace. Kids use unconventional items to make conventional things. These new programs focus on teaching problem-solving instead of instant gratification. Kids have to think through a program, create a blueprint and then execute it.

PMac is one of the first schools with E-sports. Video games is a class that will be governed by UIL. They’ll have a gaming team. Playing video games and offering E-sports ties into coding. There are components of coding they have to learn first. There are introducing a Girls Coding Club to encourage science and math with girls. They have an art club where kids learn traditional and digital art. There is a theater arts club and class, and they have band. About 70 kids are signed up for band, and they are working hard to do their first presentation at homecoming because they now have a football team. With football, PMac gained cheerleaders and everything that goes with the game. They also have track and volleyball.

PMac will have 10 grade levels at one campus and everything that kids can have opportunities to experience. Last year, PMac won the sweepstakes award for Student Council. We push on literacy. “If kids can’t read, life is a struggle.” Every day at 3 p.m. Collins reads to the campus. It’s called the “Daily Cougar Read Aloud,” a 5 or 6 minute read. Kids love it and respond positively to it. “We’re constantly pouring small drops of literacy to spark the love of reading into them,” said Collins. Once a month PMac hosts parking lot science which was born through the pandemic. It all started on Zoom but then Collins started doing it outside in the parking lot so kids could come. Kids liked it and now it’s a program.

PMac was the location for the original NEST. Rotary was the sweat equity* behind The Nest. The NEST allows kids to get career development in industry, reading groups, theater groups and connect programs between the main campus and the expansion. The school takes up the entire 4500 block of Holland so it’s called "The Block." Every day we strive to see that kids are successful then (we) make sure the job was well done.

“We are currently on a rescue mission trying to recover a lot of learning lost with our kids. It takes everybody. We’re in beast mode because we cannot allow what has happened with the pandemic to halt the learning with kids.” PMac under Collins is expanding into the community. They are looking for ways to help parents. They are looking for tools to give parents beyond the basic curriculum. “Every day I tell my kids we’re putting our best FACE forward and FACE stands for Focused on Academic and Character Excellence. If we can get those two - academic and character - then we have produced a human who will contribute to their community and society.”

*editor's note: the Club also made a significant financial donation to the N.E.S.T. at Pietzsch-MacArthur.