Assistant Principals
Tara Hinton began her educational career in the Jacksonville Independent School District in 1996 as a second-grade teacher at Joe Wright Elementary School. Ms. Hinton spent three years teaching within the district as a second and multi-age- 2nd and 3rd grade teacher at Joe Wright Elementary and second-grade teacher at Few Primary in Jasper before accepting her first assistant principal position at Rusk Intermediate in her hometown at Rusk Independent School District. Over the next two years, Ms. Hinton served as an elementary assistant principal in both Jasper and Manor Independent School Districts, respectively. In 2007, Ms. Hinton became the founding principal of Presidential Meadows Elementary in Manor Independent School District. She later transitioned back to East Texas as principal for Tyler Independent School District as building principal for Orr Elementary School, Boulter Middle School, and Clarkston Elementary School. Last year she worked as school leader/principal for KIPP Paseo Primary in Austin and currently assistant principal at Decker Middle serving 6th grade and A-L. This year marks the end of her twenty-ninth year in education and twenty-second year as a school administrator. Ms. Hinton received an Associate’s Degree in Elementary Education from Jacksonville College in 1994 and a Bachelor’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Texas at Tyler in 1996. She returned to Stephen F. Austin State University, earning her Master’s in Instructional Leadership. After several years of teaching and administration, she completed her superintendent coursework and is pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Texas at Tyler, which she will complete in Summer 2025.
Ms. Hinton says she is looking forward to the most as an Assistant Principal at Decker Middle School is building relationships with students, staff, and all stakeholders. In her role, Ms. Hinton states she is committed to three traits—empathy, servant leadership, and collaboration— which will enable her to build relationships as model leadership in our school.
At the end of the day Ms. Hinton states her goal as AP is to ensure that students love being at school, have made it home safe and sound and that teachers look forward to coming to work every day. Empathy, servant leadership, and collaboration go hand-in-hand with making those things happen.