After 12 years of serviced and overseeing countless responsibilities, ABLLE assistant principal Joe Ruiz is set to leave Akins for a working retirement.
Before working as an administrator Ruiz taught for 17 years before that. Reaching his retirement age recently, Ruiz felt it was time to start looking for a job that was a tad less hectic over the summer.
“I began looking for a job that would give me more time, but I still want to work with education,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz isn’t only a principal, he handles many other programs such as, Language Proficiency Assessment Committee, school bus schedules, Alternative Learning Center placement, Hispanic Heritage program, Languages Other Than English programs, and Saturday School.
One of his biggest is Language Proficiency Assessment Committee, which handles testing, identifying, placing, and monitoring students whose language is not English. It’s a tough job, with 260 active students in the program.
“I watched Akins go from a regular school, to a wall to wall academies,” Mr. Ruiz said.
“I’m happy for him because he’s getting to retire, but I’m also disappointed because we have to find a new member to our family,” Principal Daniel Girard said.
Ruiz is known for working long hours but is, efficient and always-on point. It’ll be difficult to find someone to replace him, to bring in a new member to Akins that’ll fit in with everything Girard said.
“It is going to be a loss to Akins and to all the ABLLE students who have come to know him and work with him.” ABLLE Counselor Gloria Rodriquez said.
Most ABLLE students at some point have met Ruiz, and most can say he was a good man, someone they’ll all miss.
“We have a really good work relationship, I can be good cop, and he can be bad cop. We work well together and it’ll be different when they find someone else I’ll have to make a relationship with.” Rodriquez Said.
It’ll be different with him gone, as there will be someone new in charge of ABLLE.
“I’m happy for him because he gets to retire, and that he gets to go one and do something different,” junior Timara Satterwhite said.
Ruiz is off to do a job at the Texas Education Agency, as he wanted to still work with education, as education is really his passion.
Ruiz said it’s going to be a huge change, as he won’t work with students anymore. He said he has waited to retire for about 2 years now, and is excited to take on something new in life considering it’s something extremely different.