When Monica Johnson first started teaching at Ada Mae Faubion Elementary School in Cedar Park, there were no walls between classrooms. Now, going into her 28th year, she said much has changed.

“When I first came, it was an open-concept school,” she said. “You’d walk into the building, and you’d hear all the teachers teaching at once.”

Johnson said teachers made dividers using stacks of books until 1993, when the school underwent an expansion, and walls went up. During construction, she said, crews kept hitting tarantula nests. Some of the braver teachers captured the tarantulas and used them as classroom pets, Johnson said.

The brick wall that used to be the exterior of the building is still visible in the hallway outside of Johnson’s classroom.

Johnson now teaches performing arts, but when she started at Faubion, she was its music teacher. Bret Champion, who recently served as LISD’s superintendent, was Faubion’s first theater arts teacher when the district integrated the subject into its curriculum in 1994, Johnson said.

Besides seeing her colleagues move on or retire, Johnson said she also sees students go on to join their middle and high school bands, and some have become music teachers, she said.

Johnson said Faubion has a reputation for being a caring school that puts its students’ needs first.

“I think there’s always a really warm feeling here,” she said. “It’s my home, and I love it.”

At Faubion’s 40th anniversary celebration Aug. 20, Principal Bobbie Steiner said she and her husband decided to build a home in the Westside Preserve neighborhood because of its proximity to Faubion. A year after the move, Steiner said she was working at the school.

“This community has become my family,” she said.

Cedar Park Mayor Matt Powell read a proclamation from Cedar Park City Council in recognition of Faubion’s 40th birthday.

“It’s a terrific school, and we’re so proud that it’s right here in Cedar Park,” Powell said.

[g-slider gid="183519" width="100%" height="55%"]