Dallas ISD is proud to be home to outstanding neighborhood schools like Adelle Turner Elementary. Discover more about our neighborhood campuses at the Discover Neighborhood Schools events on April 9 and April 23. Learn more here.
All her life, Natalie Crittendon wanted to be a teacher. And growing up, she had role models in her own family. “I come from a line of educators,” she says. “My grandmother had a daycare and my great uncle, Dr. Frederick Todd, was a former assistant superintendent in Dallas ISD.”
That line of educators continues today: Crittendon is now the principal at Adelle Turner Elementary School, which she attended as a child. And South Oak Cliff’s Coach Clifton Todd is her cousin.
“When I was a kid, my friends and I played school and I’d always be the teacher,” says Crittendon, who later graduated from Carter High School. “It was just kind of natural for me to do it, having had that example of my uncle and other educators in my family and church in front of me.”
She remembers her Uncle Fred as being a strong advocate for education. “Our gifts from him at Christmastime were always books. He was a big advocate for reading and making sure that our grades were where they needed to be and that we were doing well in school. He was always pushing for educational excellence.”
After high school, Crittendon attended Texas Southern University, majoring in elementary education. She began her career at Thomas L. Marsalis Elementary, now a STEAM academy, teaching kindergarten for two years, before moving on to teach fifth- and sixth-grade science. She was a science teacher, instructional coach and assistant principal in Duncanville ISD, and then returned to Dallas as assistant principal at her alma mater, Carter High School. Now in her 27th year as an educator, Crittendon is in her first year as principal, fulfilling a lifetime dream. It is a job she finds rewarding.
“The biggest reward I see is that after coming out of a pandemic, my students are achieving. Even though they had that gap of not being in school for pretty much two years, they’re actually coming to school, they’re trying, they’re working, and they get excited when they do things well. ‘The littles’ [as she calls the younger kids]tell me all the time how they’re getting good grades, and how they love their teachers and their principal.”
Adelle Turner Elementary, located in southern Dallas, is predominantly African American – 86% African American and 14% Hispanic. The school is 77% economically disadvantaged, with a current enrollment of 293 students in preK-4 through fifth grade. Crittendon describes the school proudly:
“We have an orchestra. We’re in the process of getting a Girl Scouts troop after school. We are sponsored by the Dallas Mavericks. They’ve adopted us and they do a lot for our campus, so we are a Mavericks school. We have other sponsors as well, including a group of young men in a Mason Lodge group who help us with campus beautification. We participate in the spelling bee. We have an active PTA and a Dad’s Club that we’re restarting now (after pausing during the pandemic). We’re known for having a strong Dad’s Club.”
The principal says, “I love young people of all ages – from the ‘littles’ to middle school age, high school and college age. And I mentor a lot of younger teachers because we have to have someone to replace us when we get old.”
Her job is not without its challenges, however.
Returning to in-person school after the pandemic, she says, “It was hard, especially for my students, because they essentially had to re-learn how to be back in school. They were out for most of two years, and that was a challenge for them socially and emotionally. So as a campus, every morning we focus on checking in on the students to see how they’re feeling, talk to them and see what’s going on with them. Being away from school and doing it all virtually hurt our students. So they’re behind – in reading, math skills, socialization – but we’re working on getting them caught up. Is it an easy task? No, it’s not, but it’s a doable task.”
Adelle Turner is one of 41 Dallas ISD schools participating in the intersession calendar, which allows for five additional weeks of school spread throughout the year to address unfinished learning caused by the pandemic.
Crittendon says the intersession calendar is working for the students who attend. She’s now conducting a survey of parents to get their feedback. “My teachers say they love intersession because they get to work more with kids in small groups where they can do targeted instruction, and the kids like it because they’d been out of school for two years, so any interaction they get to have with their peers, they love. And I love being the principal at my elementary school.”
She has another dream, however. “I would love to one day go back and be the principal at my high school. After starting off with the kids here, I’d like to see them finish and walk across the graduation stage.”
Dallas ISD is home to Crittendon because, “It made me who I am today. Had it not been for Dallas ISD, I would not have had the opportunity to be principal at my own elementary school. I’ve been groomed and taught by awesome educators. I had great experiences as a student in Dallas ISD. And to be able to come back and share all the things I learned from those people who helped make me who I am is an awesome feeling. Dallas is home to me. It will always be home.”
