Love is in the air around Princeton ISD as Valentine’s Day nears on Monday, Feb. 14.

The district, which employs almost 900 people, has several married couples at various positions from administration to the classroom. There’s also a mixture of newlyweds and long marriages in the district.

Jean Ann and Brent Collins both hold significant roles in the Princeton ISD administration. Jean Ann, who has worked as the communication coordinator for the past five years, was joined by her husband Brent, director of security, three years ago. 

Jean Ann and Brent have a special connection to Valentine’s Day because it coincides with their wedding anniversary. The couple married Feb. 14, 1989 in Huntsville two months after they began dating. 

The couple, who have two sons who are now grown, will celebrate their 33rd anniversary this Valentine’s Day

In the early days of their careers while they were dating, Jean Ann followed Brent to Huntsville where he worked as a police officer. She worked as a reporter covering crime for The Huntsville Item, formerly a weekly newspaper. 

The craziest days of their relationship were in Huntsville, said Jean Ann, because they had a couple instances where their work overlapped with their personal lives. They once busted a meth lab together, but it was far from their best story as a crime-sleuthing duo.

“We even worked on a serial killer case at the same time,” Jean Ann said.  “He would get upset when I would hear details before he would.”

Sometimes Jean Ann would cover executions of death row inmates in Huntsville, and she said Brent would wait until she left the room to discuss the details of a case.

Long before love and crime coverage entered their lives, Brent and Jean Ann knew each other well.

“From the first grade on, we were classmates,” Brent said. “We were always friends with classes together. I guess we were high school sweethearts some, but we didn’t stay that way.”

Jean Ann added she and Brent were on again, off again a few times and that “three- or four-times dating is the charm.”

Clint Sadler, Princeton High School’s principal, likes to tell people he’s known his wife since before the both of them were born. He said his wife Shelly Sadler’s mother was a nurse at the Mitchell Clinic where he was born in October 1979 and she in December the same year.

“The first time I remember meeting her was when we played on the same T ball team together before we started kindergarten,” Clint said. “She played first base and I played third, and my father was our coach. We started dating in eighth grade and never looked back.”

Clint and Shelly spent kindergarten through their senior year as Princeton ISD students. Although they went to separate colleges, they quickly decided to tie the knot following their freshman year.

The Sadlers married July 24, 1999 and have been married for 22 years. 

Not all couples in the district have longstanding marriages though. Jacob and Amanda Buckner got married June 4, 2021 and are approaching their eighth month of marriage.

Amanda said their introduction wasn’t the most cordial, either.

“Jake and I were both working at Quinlan ISD his first year teaching and my third year teaching,” Amanda said. “During the first teacher workday, Jake sat behind me. He caught my attention, so I turned around and asked rather abruptly, ‘Hi, who are you and what do you teach?’”

Apparently, her abrupt introduction didn’t scare him off. In fact, he took notice.

Jake would routinely come by my classroom and ask for extra office supplies, said Amanda. They also bonded over Creedence Clearwater Revival and were “inseparable after that first workday.”

Amanda began working for PISD in the 2021-2022 school year and Jake has worked in the district since 2019. Typically, they ride together and talk about work and the day’s successes so they can focus on family time at home. The only time the Buckners don’t share a ride is when Jake has a game to coach.

Unlike the Buckners, the Sadlers and Collinses do not ride to work together albeit for different reasons.

The Sadlers have five children spread out across three different campuses in the district, which means they only ride together if their kids are able to drive themselves home from school. The Collinses say their jobs are both demanding and they frequently have to visit different campuses throughout the district during the workday.

Clint and Shelly have both worked in PISD since 2016, he as an assistant principal at PHS and her as a teacher at Lacy Elementary School. Clint is now the principal at PHS and Shelly works as a dyslexia interventionist at Godwin Elementary School.

Clint said they sometimes talk about work, but it’s mostly Shelly asking about certain situations from an administrator’s point of view.

The Collinses have only worked in the district together for three years. Jean Ann began teaching photography, journalism and yearbook while also starting the communications department when she joined in 2010. Brent joined PISD in 2018 to head the district’s security office after retiring from the Collin County Sheriff’s Office. 

Jean Ann said she and Brent have talked about work since their Huntsville days.

“Since we work at the same place, we talk about what went on during the day at each other’s office,” Brent said. “It’s probably what we talk about most.”

All the couples interviewed said they enjoyed working with their spouse.

The first job the Sadlers did together was coach volleyball at Texoma Christian School from 2003-2005. They worked extremely well as a coaching team, said Clint.

“Our personalities are very different, but we complement each other’s strengths well,” Clint said. “We had fun doing that together, but our jobs don’t intersect now as much as they did during those years.”

The Buckners also enjoy working together much like when they first met in Quinlan ISD. 

“Being in the same district is beneficial in so many ways,” Jake said. “We believe we are stronger together. Being able to have a positive influence over these kids in such a pivotal time of their lives is special and we feel blessed we get to do it together.”

Amanda said they are both super passionate about helping the students grow and emphasized the fact that being in the same profession helps them really understand one another.

Jean Ann holds a slightly more pragmatic perspective about working together citing how she always has a lunch date. While she enjoyed chasing crime with her husband, she’s thankful for the more mundane problems of a school district.

“It’s good working together,” Brent said. “We do work together on some stuff, but mostly we do our own things.”

For more great stories, subscribe to the Princeton Herald.