McALLEN — St. John’s Episcopal Church & School named Sharon Flores its new permanent head of school earlier this week.
Flores has served as the school’s interim head since June.
“I’m thrilled,” she said Tuesday. “I can hardly wait to get started on the big stuff we have in plans.”
Flores previously worked as an educator in McAllen, but most of her experience has been in business and in serving in various capacities at St. John’s over the past 50 years.
“I was born and raised in this church and I went to this school as a child and I sent my kids to this school, and I’ve been on vestry and on the school board and was a substitute teacher here,” she said.
St. John’s reopened its doors at the end of summer, Flores said, and it’s pandemic hurdles are largely over.
“We opened August 24th and we never looked back,” she said. “We’ve had kids in school and online all year long, so we’ve already met our challenges and we’ve been successful.”
Flores says she intends to focus on expansion and growth as the school’s new leader.
The 200-plus enrollment school currently serves six-week olds to sixth graders. Flores says next year the school will add a seventh grade program and she hopes to see it add an eighth grade program the year after that.
St. John’s School is planning on expanding physically into a new location.
“In March of last year the church closed on the Frost Bank property next door, so we own that property now and it is our goal to move into that property as soon as we can,” Flores said. “We’re working on raising money as we speak.”
