Waxahachie police chief honors retired principal Savola Shackleford, highlights school–police partnership

Joe Weiser, chief of police at the Waxahachie Police Department, recounted during a meeting how retired Northside Elementary principal Savola Shackleford influenced him as a child and urged school staff to remember the long-term effect of small acts of care.

Weiser said he grew up two blocks from Northside Elementary and was named the principal's "personal assistant" in fifth grade. He recalled following school janitors around and said Shackleford noticed and invited him to help, a gesture he described as transformative: "She made everybody feel special."

Weiser told meeting attendees that years later, while serving as an assistant police chief, he spoke with a woman in Weatherford who also remembered Shackleford and the personal attention she gave students. The conversation underscored to Weiser how many people Shackleford likely affected over a decades-long career: "How many thousands of people no doubt can tell that same similar kind of story that Miss Shackleford had that kind of influence on them." He said he understood Shackleford's broad impact ‘‘over her 40 something year career."

Weiser framed the remarks as both a personal memory and a reminder to current educators: "It's those small things like that that mean the most," he said. He added that instruction matters, but so does showing students they are cared for.

He closed by stressing the Waxahachie Police Department's relationship with school faculty and staff and thanking them for their daily work: "You are a quiet hero, every bit as much as anybody wearing this badge... We love you. And we we are in this together."