A lasting legacy at Dallas ISD
As Dallas ISD celebrates National Principals Month during October, Toni Molina, principal at James S. Hogg New Tech Center, reflects on what her legacy as principal will be and how that legacy is the impact she can make on others.
“I always look at our students and tell the staff that every day they come in, they’re part of somebody’s history,” she said. “As educators, we don’t see it like that because we’re in the thick of it, but that is what we’re doing. We’re changing somebody’s history every day we show up.”
Molina speaks from experience. A graduate of Dallas ISD, she credits her education—and the opportunities that came with it—with changing the trajectory of her family’s life.
“The first teacher I can actually recall is my first grade teacher, Ms. Welsh,” she said. “She really made me feel safe, given the background I came from—we were very poor and I didn’t always feel like I belonged. I never felt like that in her classroom.”
Molina started school at Gabe P. Allen New Tech Academy (formerly Gabe P. Allen Elementary School) and graduated from Moisés E. Molina High School. 
Her parents got their GEDs. Now, two of her children graduated from Molina High School, and her youngest daughter is a freshman at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
“Our legacy is different now,” Molina said. “We have a Hispanic man who graduated from college. He’s the first from my maternal side of the family to do that.”
Growing up, Molina wanted to be an accountant. But she quickly realized her heart was leading her on a new path that would take her back to Dallas ISD to be a teacher, and eventually, a principal.
“I had some office jobs, but they weren’t for me,” she said. “When I got out of high school, I started working at a private school as a pre-K teacher. I liked the pace of it, and I liked helping people.”
Molina thought about all she had to overcome and the teachers who helped along the way, as well as the impact they had on her life, and realized that teaching was where she needed to be. After obtaining the teacher certifications, she started her tenure in the district at Gabe P. Allen.
Now, as principal at Hogg, Molina finds ways to foster traditions with her students that she hopes will one day become part of the school’s legacy. For example, drawing from her experience being active in sports, Molina strives to promote Hogg as one big team.
“One thing I always ask is ‘What are we?’ and ‘What represents us?’” she said.
“Good morning, Razorbacks” is how Molina greets students every morning to emphasize not only the school’s mascot but also what it represents.
“This year, we’re really focused on what the characteristics of a razorback are,” she said. “If you ask our students, it means we’re resilient, we’re tenacious. We don’t give up.”
