She’ll miss her Cadets, but Travis Elementary’s Billie Slater is looking ahead to retirement

By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

She teaches, she choreographs, she inspires, she energizes; boy, does she energize! It’s hard to imagine any of Billie Slater’s students having more energy than she does.

With her hands waving in time to the music, her eyes constantly scanning her singers, Slater is in constant motion directing the Travis Elementary Cadets, a group of singing sixth graders.

“They’re just a good group of kids,” she praised.

Born in Wink, Texas, Slater is the daughter of an oilfield worker and a cook in the local hospital. Even as a child, Slater had a musical beginning.

“I’ve been playing the piano since the age of 4. My mother had promised God she’d give me a knowledge of music and the Bible,” she recalled. Although she didn’t want to make music for a living, Slater wanted to be a band director.

She was working on her Bachelor of Music with band concentration degree at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, when she met her husband, Burt, in the 1970s.

“He was working on his master’s [degree] in music education,” she recalled. They married in 1975 and she quit school when he got a band director position in Anson, Texas. Billie Slater joined the Anson school’s staff as a secretary.

Moving around with her husband to different jobs, Slater has worked at different school districts and was even employed at the Texas Education Agency for a while.

With her husband retired from the education field, Slater said, “I quit [work] totally and got my degree.” She graduated in 1992 from what was then-called East Texas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a minor in music. The school eventually became Texas A&M; University – Commerce.

Going into education, she said, “at the time, was the best career for me. It was a great thing to do.”

“I wanted to be an elementary teacher,” she recalled. Slater was hired by Mineral Wells Independent School District in August of 1993 as a teacher at Travis Elementary.

“This is my calling and they had an opening,” she chuckled. “I’ve got the best job.”

At first, Slater taught general music alone. Teaching general music, she said, is something that she loves “because you teach everything – math, language arts, science, behavior, and I’m a big stickler for that!” she said.

When asked how she can teach other subjects through music, Slater explained that she taught Science when she taught students about anatomy and how to breathe correctly to sing, among other things.

In 1997, Slater took over the school’s Cadets, a singing organization for sixth graders that has been in place since 1972 under different directors.

“They told me I was going to do it and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh!” she recalled. Teaching fourth and fifth graders general music and the Cadets, Slater calculated she sees about 300 students a year.

“Music is just different than other classes,” she said. “I can move, plus it’s fun and I want my kids to laugh, have fun and just enjoy it.”

The spirited woman smiled. “My mama always said if the spirit moves you, move,” she recalled. “You just have lots of energy. The kids keep me on my toes. With my fifth and fourth graders, I’m always trying to recruit for the Cadets.”

Slater gets the Cadets’ music selections from books or other sources and comes up with the choreography.

“That’s the easy part,” she claimed, “because the music makes you move.”

When asked what the hard part of her job is, Slater paused. “The hardest part – it’s not hard. It really isn’t. It’s fun. Maybe the polishing [of performances] because you’ve got different personalities and abilities [in the Cadets].”

“With the Cadets, they’re the cream of the crop. They want to do this,” she said. “I also teach them the movement, better pitch, the discipline of performing before the public and how to be performers.” And that, Slater said, is something the students can take with them in the future no matter what they do.

“I’ve taught over 5,000 kids in Mineral Wells and that’s quite an accomplishment,” Slater remarked. “Maybe I’ve reached some of them.”

Slater must have made an impact on some, as several Cadets – current and past – united last Christmas to honor her.

She said they performed “60s with a Twist,” and “they all did the motions because I taught it the same way years ago as I do now,” she recalled.

Even in a classroom of boisterous students, Slater is able to keep them in hand. The key to that, she said, is in respect.

“I try to treat my kids with respect as I would want to be treated,” she explained. “I’m not their friend, I’m their teacher.”

Even as their teacher, she said she respects them, “especially their feelings. I tell them I love them every day. We have group hugs. I praise them, I love them, I chew their tails when they need it.

“Through my respect of them, they give it back to me.”

After 27 years in education, Slater is looking forward to retirement at the end of this school year but she’s not slowing down after that.

“My husband already retired as a superintendent in East Texas 15 years ago,” Slater commented. She explained she’s now able to retire as her years of experience and age match the magic number for teacher retirement.

When asked what she plans on doing starting this summer, Slater said, “I want to travel. We’ve already got a trip planned to Hawaii. I’ll be with the love of my life, my husband. We want to be together.”

Slater said she’s sure to miss her students and teaching but doesn’t plan to visit.

“It’s been such a big part of my life,” she remarked. The part she will miss the most, she added, is “the kids, being able to impact their lives.”

As people find out she’s retiring, Slater commented, “They ask me, ‘Can’t you teach one more year?’ or ‘My kid’s in kindergarten. Can you wait five more years?’”

While she won’t be conducting the Cadets or teaching Travis Elementary students about music for much longer, Slater isn’t planning on moving away.

“We’re going to live here,” she said. “We have our home here and yes, we’re going to stay here.”