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Trina Perkins, or Mrs. Ladybug, a name she has been fondly called by for decades of Princeton students, started her career with Princeton ISD in 1984.

A 1979 graduate of Princeton High School, she earned her degree in education from Texas A&M University before returning to Princeton for her first job at Princeton Elementary, now Lacy Elementary.

She retired in the Spring of 2025, after 40 years of service, just in time for the opening of Perkins Early Childhood Center in the fall.

Perkins ECC opened as PISD's 16th campus for the district and the 10th campus built in PISD since Smith Elementary opened in 2015.

It currently houses half of PISD’s pre-K program, as well as the second employee day care, Jaguar Cubs.

With the dedication of Perkins Early Childhood Center, Princeton ISD recognized the 40 years Trina Perkins served the district and its youngest students.

“Mrs. Trina Perkins, also known as Ms. Ladybug, dedicated 40 years to education as a pillar of Princeton ISD, guiding, nurturing and inspiring creativity in the lives of our littlest learners,” Perkins principal Courtney Croy said at the dedication. “It’s only fitting that this building carries the name of someone whose career has been devoted to building bright beginnings for children.”

According to Ms. Croy, the pre-K building honors Mrs. Perkins for shaping hearts, building confidence, planting seeds of success and "changing lives forever."

No one understands that more than Mrs. Perkins’ daughter, Ashley Edwards, who was also a former student of Mrs. Ladybug. 

“When I was in kindergarten, I was in foster care,” Ashley said. “I was a scared and broken child. The heartbreak I lived with every day of being the kid without a mommy and daddy is all I knew.”

Although Ashley didn’t know at the time, Mrs. Ladybug also carried around her own heartbreak. 

“(She carried) the grief of a heart that longed for a child but the unfortunate circumstances of thinking the Lord would only give her students to love,” she said.

Ashley emphasized their stories collided in the little kindergarten hallway, “where a woman who always dreamed of being a mother and a child that so desperately longed for a home of her own ... were brought together in the most perfect time.”

Their story further unfolded when Mrs. Ladybug invited her husband to field day.

“She wanted him to meet the little girl who had stolen her heart, so he came to field day as a volunteer,” Ashley said. “But we all know he came just to meet me - a little girl he didn't know yet, but who would soon call him Dad. That was the day my forever was going to change. Mom didn't just change my life the day she decided to adopt me, she saved it.

“She took a broken, scared little girl and loved her back to life,” Ashley said. “She taught me what a mother's love looks like - the same passion she always brought to her classroom. I was just the lucky one who got to keep her forever.”