Our mission is to provide a safe environment that fosters learning
for all children based on their individual needs. Students will
learn perserverance in gaining knowledge of our world and its
cultures. The teachers are committed to the students of our school
and will strive each day to instill a love for learning by providing
a strong academic, educational environment. |
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Lora Roberta Tipps was born October 1, 1911. She grew up on the neighboring farms of the Tipps and Casstevens families in Mansfield and the surrounding area. She attended Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, where she majored in Elementary Education. She then taught third grade for twelve years in Mansfield ISD. At the time of her retirement she had taught school in Texas for a total of 39 years. Roberta Tipps remembers a different time in Mansfield ISD's history. She taught during the 1930's and early 1940's in a single-building brick school, which is now part of the District's Administration Complex. T.A. Howard was the principal of the school at the time. "We had that one school and we thought we were really growing," said Ms. Tipps. "School was held in churches before that." When asked if it was hot in her classroom, she responded, "You bet it was. We never had air conditioning." One of her fondest memories is taking a bus to Fort Worth on Saturdays to shop with her friends, Charlotte Anderson and Alice Ponder. The only shopping options in Mansfield were in the downtown area and it was hard to resist the lure of the large department stores in Fort Worth. Laverne Duncan, who had known Ms. Tipps since the 1950's and is also a retired teacher who taught for 44 years, remembers the first time she met Ms. Tipps when they were both teaching in Wichita Falls. "She was always the neatest, tidiest teacher," said Duncan. She remembers Ms. Tipps as a professional who was always very nice to everyone she met. Looking out her front window, onto what is now Main Street in Mansfield, Ms. Tipps remembers a dirt road where horses and buggies traveled before the Model T became prevalent. "A woman at the beauty shop stopped me the other day and said that I was her teacher,"said Ms. Tipps, smiling. "She was a grandmother." Ms. Tipps has been honored by the Mansfield ISD Alumni Association in 2000, given the Achievement Award by the Beta Phi Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society and was also honored by the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce in 1974. She has traveled extensively throughout the contiguous United States and eastern Canada, and as far as Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Austria. "She is very positive and has a great outlook on life," said Jane Hart, a Tipps family member. "I remember her always talking about being a teacher. Everyone in my immediate family are teachers, and I think she had a big part in that." Ms. Tipps has a quick wit and a true appreciation
of the Mansfield community's past and present. Mansfield ISD is
proud to dedicate this school in her honor. |
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