Pine Shadows Elementary Principal Natalie Blasingame

Spring Oaks Middle School Principal David Sablatura

Campus leaders at Pine Shadows Elementary and Spring Oaks Middle School have been named by their peers as SBISD’s 2008 Elementary and Secondary Principals of the Year.

Pine Shadows Elementary Principal Natalie Blasingame and Spring Oaks Middle School Principal David Sablatura won top honors in the district’s third annual recognition of campus leaders. Both principals have earned doctorates in education.

Nominated by their peers, Principals of the Year are selected based on the following criteria:

• Concern for all staff and students and their ability to inspire them
• Ability and willingness to work cooperatively with all staff and administrators
• Proven drive to initiate and implement effective strategies supporting continuous improvement in student performance
• Ability to work with diverse community groups and all stakeholders
• Proven desire for continuous personal professional growth
• Ability and willingness to make meaningful contributions to education  

Blasingame has been principal at Pine Shadows Elementary, 9900 Neuens, for seven years. She began her 16-year education career in Houston as a Teach for America Corps member, and then worked as a bilingual teacher and assistant principal in Alief ISD.

A 1992 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, she earned a master’s degree in education from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and later earned a doctorate in administration and supervision from the UH College of Education.

Pine Shadows staff has worked together as a team to build strong practices in literacy across the curriculum and has closed achievement gaps in recent years through coordination of its bilingual program.

The elementary school has been awarded almost $1 million in grant funds during the past seven years. During that period, Pine Shadows has created a regionally recognized fine-arts integration program, developed guided reading practices and supported differentiated instruction through its leveled library, and provided quality after-school programs.

Fifth-graders in the Pine Shadows Elementary after-school program were chosen recently to spend four days in Washington, D.C., as representatives of the Harris County Department of Education.

“It is my passion and privilege to lead the Pine Shadows staff in providing an excellent, well-rounded education for all students,” Blasingame said. “I am proud to work in a school system that places students at the center of all decisions and empowers educators to apply various strategies to ensure the academic and emotional growth of each child.”

“I am honored and humbled to represent such a talented, dedicated group of professionals as the Elementary Principal of the Year,” she also said. Natalie and her husband, Robert Blasingame, are the proud parents of an 18-month-old, Madeleine, who attends The Lion Lane School for Early Learning’s employee childcare program.

David Sablatura has served as principal at Spring Oaks Middle School, 2150 Shadowdale, for the past four years. He has worked in SBISD for eight years at the middle school and as a Memorial High grade level principal. He was a high school business teacher and instructional technology director before that in Aldine ISD.

Sablatura has earned degrees from Texas Lutheran University, Washington State University and the University of Houston. In 2002, he received his doctorate in educational leadership and cultural studies from UH.

The Texas Education Agency has rated Spring Oaks Middle as a Recognized school for six years in a row. The campus has also been honored as a top Texas middle school by such diverse groups as the Texas Business Education Coalition, the Just for the Kids Foundation, the National Center for Educational Achievement and by Texas Monthly magazine.

“I am very honored to be chosen as Secondary Principal of the Year. I am privileged to work with a strong faculty and staff at Spring Oaks, and that makes all the difference.

“Our goal is challenge each of our students academically and to offer a well-rounded middle school education that includes award-winning fine arts programs and competitive athletic programs. We try very hard to educate the whole child, to help them grow and be prepared for high school. To me, this honor is a testament to the fantastic job that our teachers and students are doing.”

“I also want to thank the secondary principals for this honor,” Sablatura said. “They are a bright, committed and caring group of educators. Although we’re all very busy, we find time to bounce ideas off each other and share what is working and not working at our campuses.

“My fellow principals have been very helpful and supportive over the past four years. I am truly humbled to be honored by them in this way,” he said.

David’s wife, Norma, is an Aldine ISD high school teacher. They live in Pearland with their two elementary age children, Gabriella and Carly.

Photos by MacKenzie Cash of Stratford High.

posted 04-14-08