Mother strived to qualify for school job she did free for years

When Dalia Odell got her Clark County School District employee badge, the first thing she did was text a photo of it to Sewell Elementary School principal Carrie Buck.

Buck replied: “Congratulations! I’m so very proud of you Mrs. Odell. I love you with all my heart.”

Odell texted back: “Oh Dr. Buck you make me blush. Thank you so much for all of your support. I only got this far because you believed in me. I’ll never forget the trust and support you have given me.”

Rereading the text a few days later, Buck tears up and her voice breaks.

Another text from Odell to Buck and assistant principal Holli Ratliff says, “I could never pay you back for the change you have made in my life. It’s like having a real family. I love you both.”

Odell has volunteered at Sewell, 700 E. Lake Mead Parkway, for nearly a decade, often for more than 40 hours per week.

On March 4, she walked into Sewell as an employee –– Library Assistant III –– on the first day of her first official job.

“She’s inspirational to us,” Buck said of Odell.

“She’s given blood, sweat and tears to this place,” Ratliff added. “We need people like her in the district.”

She was slated to receive her first paycheck March 20.

“As soon as I get it, believe me, it will be in a frame,” Odell said.

She starts to cry while mimicking holding a check in her hands.

“I don’t even know if I want to spend it,” she said. “It may not mean a lot to most people, but to me, it means a lot, a lot, a lot.”

Odell’s path to Sewell was winding. She was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and moved back and forth to California with different family members as a child. At 15, she became pregnant and later homeless, since her family kicked her out after she gave birth.

“I was eating out of trash cans with my baby,” Odell said.

She had other issues, too.

“I was a suicidal teen, a drug addict, an alcoholic,” she said. “... It was just madness, the whole thing. ... I know I made mistakes.”

Odell said she went through several abusive relationships, including one that brought her to Las Vegas in 2001. A few years later, she would meet a guy she said is the first good man in her life, Leroy Odell, a blackjack dealer at Sunset Station. They married, moved to Henderson, and their kids began attending Sewell.

“To go through all that and make it here now and have someone who trusts me, I don’t know what to do,” she said.

About nine years ago, Odell asked her son’s kindergarten teacher if she could help, and he asked her to make some copies.

“Before you know it, I was doing the whole grade,” Odell said.

When her kids moved to different grade levels, she would help out all the teachers on that level, too.

“I wanted to take a little load off their shoulders,” she said.

Eventually, Odell was helping in the library and the office. She was in charge of special events and fundraisers. She was put in charge of the parents organization two years ago, and enrollment has since tripled, Ratliff said. Odell was given a desk in the office, along with a phone line and a radio. She also teaches English classes in the morning and afternoons in the school’s Parent Resource Center.

And Odell learned on the fly. She had never had an office job before. She had never used a computer. She was not a legal citizen before marrying and had worked jobs only for friends.

“She amazes me with her work ethic,” Ratliff said. “She’s here early, stays late, and that was as a volunteer. To see her work as hard as our staff was an instant indicator to us she’s someone we would love to have on staff.”

Buck wanted to hire her, but one thing stood in the way.

Odell did not finish high school and would need to take adult education classes and pass an exam to get a GED diploma.

“I was given a chance to better myself,” Odell said. “... Knowing that I could, I just had to do it.”

And she got a little help from her friends. Sewell teachers and office staff members were now giving up their time to help tutor Odell, who passed the test on her second try.

And even though she has been doing the job for years, Odell said she was still a little nervous on her first day.

“They’ve given me trust,” she said. “They believed in me. They’ve given me opportunity. They encouraged me. I’ve never had that before.”

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 702-224-5524.