School District Bids Superintendent Farewell

Emotional tears, laughter and nearly nine years of memories were shared in the school administration building on Friday, as a background of music from a children’s choir, strings and mariachis performed at San Angelo ISD Superintendent Dr. Carol Ann Bonds’ retirement ceremony.

The event was an all-day affair, beginning at 10 a.m. with speakers who have worked closely with the superintendent over the past several years and continuing through the afternoon with fresh finger foods catered by the school district’s culinary students and 30-minute performances by groups of musically-gifted students from 5^th grade and up.

The setting was well suited to Dr. Bonds, a woman who was continually revered as one of the most passionate, caring and tenacious women the city has ever known, with a heart for children three sizes bigger than most.

Above: McGill Elementary Choir sings at Dr. Bonds' retirement ceremony.

“She’s very passionate about kids—all kids,” said Brent Davis, Central High School’s head football coach. “She knows as much about culinary arts and she wants them to do as well as they can, just as much as athletics or band or anything else, and that’s a unique person in today’s world. She has interest in everything that has to do with this school district and that’s a very good quality to have, especially as a leader.”

Waiting to be greeted with hugs and congratulations from an ever-growing line, Bonds paused to relay was she feels is a part of the legacy she’s leaving behind, picking up on a subject she wasn’t aware Davis had already discussed.

“I’m grateful for a broadening of successes across all of our extracurricular, whether a child is interested in debate—we had 35 state and national winners in that field—our tennis, our baseball, our golf, our choir, our bands,” she said. “So spreading the wealth out so a child can have something so they can feel good about themselves and not just about doing well in the academic arenas.”

Above: Central High School Strings perform at Dr. Bonds' retirement ceremony.

Pam Blair, who for years has worked as Dr. Bonds’ assistant, reiterated the superintendent’s genuine love for children and recalled a common practice in her office when Bonds learned of a student who was having personal issues.

“When a child is lost or a child is going through things in their life, she goes to her yearbook and find that child and keeps it open on her desk,” Blair said, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. “That’s probably what people don’t know about her. She does, she cares about those children.”

If the child’s photo was not in the yearbook, Bonds would like him or her up on the computer and either print it out or stand there to get a visual on who that child is, Blair explained.

“That’s just how much she cares,” she said. “It’s just not a name in her head, it’s a face she [looks at] when a student has gone through things. And good and bad, but a lot of the bad and I know she keeps them in her prayers. That’s just the kind of person that she is. It’s not just a job for her, it’s a passion.”

Bonds spoke to her love of children on Friday by explaining that contact with the district in San Angelo begins a few weeks after birth with early head start and continuing through high school graduation.

“That is a window that is unlike any other window of their lives,” she said. “We can help them the most during that to learn their gifts and to learn how they were created to be an individual and be successful. So I take that responsibility very seriously and I also thoroughly enjoy their little bitty successes all the way up to their championship successes. There’s nothing else in life like it.”

Bonds’ support of children extends from the local district to children of service members on the base, for whom she has continually advocated since becoming superintendent of the SAISD.

Through the years, she has served on the Air Force and Air Force Education and Civic Leaders groups, pushing to build a solid relationship between the community, the district and Goodfellow Air Force Base.

“Her father was a military officer in the army, so she’s had a lifelong love of the military…” Colonel Kimberlee Joos said. “And while she runs this whole school district and she does all this volunteer work, she always has time for the military at Goodfellow Air Force Base, but especially our families and then the military children that are in our school district…whatever the status quo is, it’s never enough for her. She always wants to do more. ‘How can I help?’ and then she’s backing it up with actions. It’s just been a wonderful relationship with Dr. Bonds and the base.”

The partnership with the base and other public and private organizations in town is rare, Bonds said, and something so valuable she and her husband have been moved to remain in the city after retirement.

While she and husband Charlie will remain active in the community for the foreseeable future, Bonds has agreed to take on a post with the Center for Reform of School Systems, working one week a month with inner-city, troubled schools in metropolitan areas.

“It’ll be in a big-city school district that has tried their best—everything—and so this is something that I have a real heart for helping before they gasp,” she said.

Bonds is set to officially retire at the end of August, when her successor, likely to be Carl Dethloff, will take her position.