Highland Lakes Elementary principal selected for leadership program
Highland Lakes Elementary School Principal Leslie Talamantes is off to Harvard University in the summer of 2021. She is one of 62 school leaders selected for the university’s Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership Institute. It’s part of the 2002 Raise Your Hand Texas leadership program. Courtesy photo
Learning never stops. Just ask Highland Lakes Elementary School Principal Leslie Talamantes.
The 17-year educator is headed to Harvard University in the summer of 2021 for a leadership program. She was selected to participate in the 2020 Raise Your Hand Texas, which includes the trip to the Ivy League school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The mission of the nonprofit Raise Your Hand Texas is ensuring public school students are prepared for the future. The organization offers leadership and learning opportunities for educators as well as advocates for public schools.
Talamantes is one of 62 school leaders selected for leadership qualities and the potential to bring significant change to their schools and communities.
Talamantes joined Marble Falls Independent School District in 2003 and was a Marble Falls High School teacher until 2008, when she shifted to elementary school. Talamantes eventually became the district’s intervention coordinator for at-risk students and the district coordinator for English language learners from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.
She left MFISD and served as an assistant principal for two years with Dripping Springs ISD before taking the principal spot at the district’s Hanna Springs Elementary School in 2017.
Last June, she returned to MFISD as Highland Lakes Elementary’s principal.
As part of the Raise Your Hand Texas leadership program, Talamantes will participate in Leading Schools, a virtual workshop, this summer. She’ll also take part in additional virtual monthly professional sessions with a group of other school principals in the program.
Then, next summer, Talamantes will travel to Harvard University for the Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership Institute.
