Azucena Saenz Bio

My name is Azucena C. Saenz, married to Oscar Saenz Jr. for 31 years. I have one daughter and one grandson. I worked for Roma ISD as a second-grade teacher for fifteen years and then decided to move to the valley. I started working for Hidalgo County Head Start as a Center Manager on October 2, 2002, and I went on to work at Las Milpas as a Campus Director. The following year, I moved to Edinburg Head Start on Richardson Street. During that program year, they opened a position as Area Director. The position required a Master’s degree and so, I 
enrolled at the University of Texas-Pan American with a grant offered through Hidalgo County Head Start. I applied and got accepted into the Master's program. I worked full-time and attended classes at night to acquire my Master's degree.
Area Director responsibilities included: ensuring performance in the classrooms through CLASS observation and providing feedback to teaching staff; providing support, leadership, and technical assistance to the campus staff and other staff in the design and implementation of the Education Services; functions such as the use of the curriculum, program operation, management of staff and activities; Planned, conducted, and evaluated the goals and activities in the lesson plan and together with the School Readiness Plan for Dual Language Learners; planned for the 
integration of the Head Start Content Area and Domains in all aspects of classroom instruction; performed other duties as assigned by the immediate supervisor and or the Executive Director. CLASS certified.

On February 13, 2017, I became the Compliance Director for the program. My responsibilities were to establish and maintain an overall monitoring plan to review and address monitoring requirements at all levels as described in the Head Start Performance Standard, The Texas Department of Health and Human Services-Child Care Regulation, local state and federal laws; integrate the use of the Program Management Systems; The Program Plans, monitoring components, the Self-assessment; the program strategic Plan, the Administrative Plan, the School Readiness Plan and the Parent , Family and Community Engagement Plan in the overall plan; provide guidance for all department directors, center managers and others to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and standards using written policies and procedures, training and staff development, monitoring, auditing, investigation and reporting processes for their area assignment; provide reports on a regular basis to the Executive Director through the Assistant Program Director on compliance issues and the corrective action plans being 
implemented; ensure reports received through state or federal audits of non-compliance reports are reviewed and finding are corrected through the development and implementation of corrective action plans.

On August 21, 2023, I got the opportunity to become the Field Operations Director for the organization. As the Field Operations Director, my responsibilities are to ensure the implementation of transportation, facility management, and distribution sub-system that includes vehicle maintenance, building maintenance and any associated costs, inventory of vehicles, which include location, service records, recorded maintenance costs, drivers, insurance, and 
registration. Develop procedures regarding facilities, transportation, and maintenance in all areas. Ensure all necessary repairs to program facilities and/or vehicles for safety purposes. Ensure that all reports regarding transportation and building maintenance are submitted promptly. The Hidalgo County Head Start Program is a great organization to work at.