{"id":6391,"date":"2021-12-02T15:39:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T21:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/?p=6391"},"modified":"2021-12-06T08:56:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T14:56:09","slug":"heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>All means all in RISD. Every student. Every stakeholder. All are loved, and all are integral to RISD&#8217;s Vision Statement \u2013 Where all students connect, learn, grow, and succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Willie is one of the all. Willie Bernard\u2019s job title is daytime custodian at Spring Creek Elementary, but he\u2019s much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assistant Principal Karen Fields said his larger-than-life personality is the heartbeat of the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe sly smile and booming voice that greet us every school day with tunes jamming and megaphone in hand gets all of Spring Creek off to a happy start, and keeps us in order too,\u201d Fields said. \u201cMr. Willie is the watchful eye, go-to-guy, pick-me-up&nbsp;heartbeat of our school.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Willie is retiring at the end of the month after a decade at Spring Creek Elementary and another five years at Richardson Heights Elementary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo really appreciate all the good vibes that Willie Bernard shares, you must know his story,\u201d Fields said. \u201cHe came to Dallas in late 2005 as a Hurricane Katrina survivor. He was pulled from the rooftop of his flooded home in New Orleans and sought shelter in the Dallas Convention Center with his wife and two brothers. The father of five has survived the loss of a son in a car accident, as well as the loss of his beloved wife, Angel. Through it all, he continues to share his heart that&#8217;s full of love and bigger than Texas with our school each day. Everyone feels it! Thousands of students through the years have come to love Mr. Willie as much as he loves all of us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcdfw.com\/news\/local\/larger-than-life-personality-says-goodbye-to-students-in-richardson\/2830391\/\">Click here to view the NBC 5 vignette on Mr. Willie<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/article\/features\/longtime-spring-creek-elementary-school-custodian-retires-after-spending-every-morning-dancing-singing-for-students\/287-2b6e6800-93fd-419f-a174-2f0674892e30\">WFAA Channel 8 also profiled Mr. Willie<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of RISD is grateful for Mr. Willie. All of us. #RISDPowerOfLove<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Willie Bernard is retiring at the end of the month. Assistant Principal Karen Fields said his larger-than-life personality is the heartbeat of the school.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":4,"featured_media":6392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[188],"class_list":["post-6391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-district-news","tag-spring-creek-elementary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Willie Bernard is retiring at the end of the month. Assistant Principal Karen Fields said his larger-than-life personality is the heartbeat of the school.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Richardson ISD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1580\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1311\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tim Clark\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/01ecebe0fa1d32d9ec29fdd2af723e38\"},\"headline\":\"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Spring Creek Elementary\"],\"articleSection\":[\"District News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\",\"name\":\"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg\",\"width\":1580,\"height\":1311,\"caption\":\"Mr Willie and the Spring Creek principal\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/\",\"name\":\"Richardson ISD\",\"description\":\"Every Child. Every Teacher. Every Leader. Every Day.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Richardson ISD\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/risd_logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/risd_logo.svg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Richardson ISD\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/01ecebe0fa1d32d9ec29fdd2af723e38\",\"name\":\"Tim Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b0dccc543d03a6f4143f4f78b72fc68e84ebf0959149bb14af20e5258fc050e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b0dccc543d03a6f4143f4f78b72fc68e84ebf0959149bb14af20e5258fc050e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Clark\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD","og_description":"Willie Bernard is retiring at the end of the month. Assistant Principal Karen Fields said his larger-than-life personality is the heartbeat of the school.","og_url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/","og_site_name":"Richardson ISD","article_published_time":"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1580,"height":1311,"url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tim Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Clark","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/"},"author":{"name":"Tim Clark","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/01ecebe0fa1d32d9ec29fdd2af723e38"},"headline":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring","datePublished":"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/"},"wordCount":303,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg","keywords":["Spring Creek Elementary"],"articleSection":["District News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/","url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/","name":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring - Richardson ISD","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg","datePublished":"2021-12-02T21:39:30+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-06T14:56:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Mr.Willie12022021.jpg","width":1580,"height":1311,"caption":"Mr Willie and the Spring Creek principal"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/heartbeat-of-spring-creek-retiring\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Heartbeat of Spring Creek Retiring"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#website","url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/","name":"Richardson ISD","description":"Every Child. Every Teacher. Every Leader. Every Day.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#organization","name":"Richardson ISD","url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/risd_logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/risd_logo.svg","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"Richardson ISD"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/01ecebe0fa1d32d9ec29fdd2af723e38","name":"Tim Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b0dccc543d03a6f4143f4f78b72fc68e84ebf0959149bb14af20e5258fc050e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0b0dccc543d03a6f4143f4f78b72fc68e84ebf0959149bb14af20e5258fc050e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Clark"}}]}},"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34308,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6391\/revisions\/34308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.risd.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}