Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Sally Doyle, the visual arts coordinator for the past eight years in Spring Branch ISD, was recently named a Texas Art Education Award (TAEA) Distinguished Fellow.

The recognition, one of TAEA’s highest honors, was awarded to Doyle publicly on Nov. 10 during the association’s annual conference in McAllen, Texas. 

In addition to serving as SBISD’s visual arts administrator, she was visual arts facilitator in Fort Bend ISD, where she was an art educator for 32 years. Doyle has taught youths from elementary up to high school during her distinguished career.

“In my heart and soul, I eat, breathe and live to create,” she told TAEA when receiving her Distinguished Fellow Award. “I was born to be an educator, and art is my passion. I have had the honor to work with students for 32 years as an art teacher, and now I have the privilege to mold students in another way, by guiding the great art teachers of Spring Branch ISD.”

If recent service as an administrator has taken her out of the classroom, Doyle found a path to her first love, helping guide students.

“Never in a million years did I ever see myself in an administrative role,” she told TAEA conference members. “I miss working with students. However, every year I mentor two or more students at Spring Woods High School in our district’s Collegiate Challenge program. In this program, I help guide students along through the process of college acceptance and funding.”

In Fort Bend ISD, Doyle taught art at E.A. Jones Elementary, Sugar Land and First Colony middle schools, and Clements High School. She retired from that district as visual arts facilitator.

During her teaching and visual arts career there, she instituted and sponsored National Art Honor Societies for more than 15 years. She also began art portfolio submission for advanced classes and led the first Advanced Placement 3-D Class in Fort Bend ISD.

In addition, she began an inclusion program for Life Skills special education students, a model program to this day.

In SBISD, she has administered a number of programs and events, including student art shows ranging from the annual Rodeo and Running for the Arts exhibitions to an annual Board of Trustees presentation honoring student art award winners.

A TAEA member since 1986, and a National Art Education Association member since 1999, Doyle has contributed to the arts as a workshop presenter, Council at Large and Conference Committee member, VASE Blue Ribbon Committee and VASE regional member, Gold Seal chairman, and the TAEA Supervision Division chairman.

Doyle’s numerous awards and distinctions include Teacher of the Year Runner-Up at E.A. Jones Elementary (1980-81), Teacher of the Year at First Colony Middle School (1986-1987), and Culture Shapers Educator of the Year.

Her Distinguished Fellow Award states: “Sally is an incredibly dedicated member of this profession and the Texas Art Education Association.”