After a long and successful career in public education, award-winning Hudson PEP principal Mrs. Sue Wilson is retiring.
"I feel that I am the luckiest human on earth because I have lived my dream and passion: serving children and watching them grow and bloom onto the next stage of their lives. What a gift!" she said. "It is bittersweet to leave my PEP family and enter into the unknown. I have been an educator for 48 years and even though I will not open our hallways each morning. I expect to go on working, even if I only updating my home, cleaning out flower beds, working out with my friends, meeting others for lunch, playing with neighbors, spending time with family, and maybe even do something part-time to keep me 'in the game.'"
"It is very difficult to say goodbye when you know it is really goodbye, not just au revoir or see you soon," she said. "So let me just say that when I walk down the halls for the last time on June 30, I will keep remembering, reflecting, thinking of you, and looking back on all that is dear to me, until we meet again."
Longview ISD Superintendent Dr. James Wilcox said Sue Wilson’s retirement is one that, “while it is certainly well-deserved,” he “has dreaded it for some time now.”
“You don’t replace a Sue Wilson. You just don’t. She has been an absolute cornerstone of elementary education in the Gregg County area for so long, her positive influence and leadership looms over countless teachers and education professionals throughout our state and region,” he said. “Of course, the board and district leadership has every confidence in the skills and talents of her successor, Mrs. Christi Coleman, and we know that she knows what huge shoes she has to fill at Hudson PEP Elementary.”
Mrs. Wilson’s retirement comes at the end of a triumphant career spanning nearly 50 years. Throughout her journey in education, she spent 14 years at New Diana ISD as a principal, then an assistant superintendent. In 2002, Mrs. Wilson came to Longview ISD as principal of Mozelle Johnston Elementary School.
Two years after joining the Lobo Nation Mrs. Wilson would go on to Hudson PEP Elementary School where she would spend the rest of her career guiding our students to success. During her time there, Hudson PEP has constantly been rated exceedingly above average on the state accountability system with its students earning tremendous accolades for their scholastic performance.
“She understands what a truly effective leader is. She teaches our students by example and she leads her faculty and staff beside us and most importantly, with us,” said Mrs. Alison Campbell, Hudson PEP 4th grade language arts teacher. “She has been my mentor for over thirty years and I am also blessed to call her one of my closest friends even when we are on a trip and she jumps on my bed early in the morning because she is obnoxiously happy when she wakes up.”
Mrs. Wilson views every student, parent, and faculty member as being a part of a family. It is no doubt that this, combined with her determination to improve education that her campus was rated last year as being one of the 5 best elementary schools in Texas by U.S. News & World Report.
Former LISD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Andrea Mayo (also a long-time colleague of Sue Wilson) echoed Dr. Wilcox in celebrating the “generosity of spirit and affection that permeates everything she does in her life and professional career.”
“To know Sue Wilson is to love her, as there is no limit to what she will do for the students and staff in her care,” she said. “In everything she does, she is guided by sincere affection and consummate professionalism. I am thankful to have been her friend and colleague, and to see the amazing things she has done in her career.”
