Administrative assistant honored with United Way award
Apr. 30—Longtime Ector County ISD administrative assistant Frances Franco recently received the United Way of Odessa's Outstanding Workplace Coordinator award for her work on the pledge campaign.
ECISD's campaign is actually a series of about 50 micro-campaigns — one from each school and each administrative division.
Franco is the point-person for those micro-campaigns; setting up the introduction meeting for each of those 50 coordinators, making sure they have United Way materials, collecting each micro-campaign's donations, and coordinating with various departments to ensure the donations are delivered to the United Way.
Franco said she didn't realize there was such an award.
"I was very surprised," she said.
She added that she usually doesn't attend the United Way Banquet. It's usually Adkins and other cabinet members.
Franco has been with ECISD for 25 years and is currently administrative assistant to Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins and does other things for people in the department. She is retiring.
"Frances is the glue that holds the Communications Department together," Adkins said. "With 25 years of experience with ECISD, she knows all the procedures and knows just about everyone. She's smart and hard-working and is always looking for the opportunity to learn new things. Most of all, she is a great person with a genuine heart to help others and that makes her special."
Counting Franco, there are five people in communications. She has been with the communications department for three years and was in Guidance and Counseling and worked at campuses at the elementary and high school level.
"It was edifying at times," but stressful, Franco said.
She added that she's always been interested in working with students. Franco started working at a daycare as an after-school job in ninth grade.
"My whole family, my siblings, they all worked in education here at ECISD on different campuses and different positions."
She continued working with students and also served as a Sunday School teacher at Immanuel Baptist.
"I just enjoyed being around students and watching them grow during their aha moments and during their yuck moments and their panic moments. When I was at the high school counselors, I remember our seniors second semester ... they were just out of their mind. And I know it's because they knew what they were about to face with life. I enjoyed listening to their struggles, and sometimes they just ... want somebody to hear them out," Franco said.
An Odessa native, Franco went to Odessa High School. Her first cousin is Mary Franco, who is Executive Administrative Assistant to Superintendent of Schools.
She has two sisters and a brother.
Other family members also worked in various capacities for the district.
All United Way contributions stay local and are used "to educate our students."
Franco and her husband, Toby, had three children, one of whom passed away. One son works for UPS and the other works for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
