Cooper Junior High Principal’s Story Comes Full Circle

When Mary Zucha walks the halls of Cooper Junior High School as its new principal, she does so with a lifetime of Wylie pride woven into her story. From her first days as a kindergartener at Hartman Elementary to graduating from Wylie High School in 2009, Zucha has lived the Wylie Way as a student, paraprofessional, teacher, assistant principal, and now principal.

After Hartman, she attended Harrison Intermediate, Burnett Junior High, and WHS, back when Wylie was much smaller and those campuses were Pirate feeders. Today, most would recognize Hartman (before it became the ECLC), Harrison, and Burnett as Wylie East feeder schools, a reminder of just how much the district has grown. Choosing to return to work in the district where she grew up, Zucha is Proud to Be Wylie ISD.

Her favorite memories as a student revolve around the people who still influence her leadership today.

“I remember the amazing staff members,” Zucha said. “At Hartman, Ms. [Yolanda] Benitez was my fourth-grade teacher. I felt comfortable, safe, and happy in her class. At Burnett, I had Mike Williams as my principal. He was one of the best principals I ever had. My seventh-grade science teacher, Brittany [Sluetz] Miller, made science so fun. She was extremely enthusiastic, and she brought science to life. She’s the reason I became a science teacher.”

Her Wylie High days left lasting impressions, too. Cheerleading, homecoming, AHMO culture, curly fries, and teachers all made school feel special.

“Amanda Martin taught me AP Psychology,” Zucha said. “She was my favorite teacher at Wylie High.”

At the time, Martin, now the Director of the Wylie Way and Counseling, was expecting her oldest child.

“Then, I got to be his seventh-grade science teacher here at Cooper,” Zucha said.

Zucha did not originally plan on becoming an educator. After earning a degree in psychology, she began serving with her church’s youth group, where she discovered a passion for working with middle schoolers.

“I liked working with kids,” she said. “I thought, if I can teach them about God at church, I can definitely teach them science.”

That spark led her back to Wylie ISD as a paraprofessional and later as a science teacher at Cooper, where she also coached cheerleading.

“That was so fun because you get to build your relationship outside of the classroom,” she said about coaching cheer for four years. “Those relationships were deeper. They felt like my daughters. Getting to ‘mother’ them was fun. I don’t have any children of my own, but I do have 1,000 children [here at Cooper].”

Her early years as an educator confirmed she had found her calling.

“I had a hard day my first year of teaching,” Zucha said. “I had a really tough class period. I wore my emotion on my face. At the time, I was also a cheer coach. My cheerleaders noticed that I was down and wrote a kind compliment on a Post-it note, then put it on my door. And by the time I came back to school the next day, my door was completely covered with sticky notes, all by students building me up and encouraging me. I knew I was in the right place. It’s not just me making an impact on kids, it’s them making an impact on my life too.”

In 2019, Zucha was named Cooper’s Teacher of the Year, then went on to become the Wylie ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Step by step, she grew into leadership. During her year as an attendance clerk at Cooper, she gained a backstage pass to see what it takes to run a school. No matter the role, each experience helped her grow as a leader. Mentors like former Cooper principal Dr. Shawn Miller encouraged her to see herself in that light and take the next step in her career.

“Dr. Miller grew me as a leader,” Zucha said. “He was incredible. He signed me up for the leadership academy. It was fast and furious from there.”

She said the leadership cohort provided valuable insight into the district and eventually led to her being hired as an assistant principal at Cooper.

“I felt God opened the doors,” Zucha said. “I didn’t seek it out. It was the people who believed in me and grew me as a leader who got me to where I am today.”

She’s quick to credit the people who poured into her along the way, like her science team leader, Beth Brown, now a counselor at WHS.

“She just cared so deeply for me and saw in me what I didn’t see in myself, and taught me how to love kids,” Zucha said. “She shaped my perspective on how to love kids and how to support them.”

The respect and admiration go both ways. Brown said Zucha’s commitment to positively impacting everyone, whether it’s students, teachers, colleagues, or her community, is both inspiring and transformative.

“Mary exemplifies servant leadership in every aspect of her life, both professionally and personally,” Brown said. “She leads with empathy, humility, and a genuine desire to uplift those around her. She consistently puts others first, listens with intention, and fosters an environment where people feel valued, supported, and empowered to grow.”

For Zucha, the most meaningful part of her career is that it has all unfolded in one building.

“All of my professional career has been here at Cooper,” she said. “That may be the best part of my story. It’s all that I know. I told myself that if an opportunity ever comes up to be a principal, I want it to be at Cooper.”

That dream became a reality at the end of last school year when Zucha became principal after the school’s former leader moved to central administration.

“This has been my home for 11 years,” she said. “First, as an attendance clerk, then I taught for eight years, then was an AP for three years, and now I’m principal.”

Today, she hopes to give students the same support and confidence she felt in Wylie schools.

“I hope [students] remember that they are valued and loved, that they are important,” she said. “I hope that they remember to be proud of who they are and to work hard.”

Her roots run deep. She is a triplet, met her husband Zach at Harrison Intermediate, and her parents still live in the community. Looking back, she knows why Wylie was always home.

“Wylie is all about grit,” she said. “That prepared me to be the leader I am today. I always felt valued, cared for, and seen. Growing up in this community has built my confidence.”

And that grit, paired with spirit and pride, is what she hopes to pass on to the next generation.

“To be successful here in Wylie, you have to put relationships first,” she said. “You’ve got to be prepared to work very hard because we do what’s best for kids, and that requires a lot of hard work.”

Now, as she leads Cooper, Zucha is proof of the district’s impact both as an alumna and as a principal. Mary Zucha is Proud to Be Wylie ISD.