Local trustees participate in Leadership Program

Published 10:31 am Monday, March 16, 2020

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To The Leader

AUSTIN, Texas – Linda Platt-Bryant, trustee from West Orange-Cove CISD and Mark Anderson, trustee from Bridge City ISD joined 35 other school board members from across Texas February 20-22 at the third session of the Leadership TASB class of 2020. Selected by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), the group is participating in a yearlong education leadership study program. These trustees represent school districts of all sizes, with student populations of 161 to 189,681, and reflect a similar range of property wealth.

Participants who complete all required elements of the study will graduate next year

by earning Master Trustee status. This is the highest designation recognized by TASB.

Meeting in Austin for the session themed “Where Leadership Happens through Working Outside the Line,” the trustees began with a visit to O’Henry Middle School. The Austin ISD campus fully embraced the concept of social emotional learning (SEL) and integrated it into its entire curriculum. To add further understanding of SEL, trustees heard from Keeth Matheny, nationally recognized SEL speaker and advocate.

Amy Lynch was the second featured speaker for the Austin session. Lynch, also recognized nationally, spoke to the trustees on generational differences and helped the trustees study their district websites to determine which generation the sites might be targeting.

After a visit to the Texas Education Agency, the trustees toured Austin’s Griffin School, a premier private secondary campus for high performing students who thrive in a nontraditional setting.

Other Leadership TASB sessions are scheduled for El Paso, April 16-18, and Fort Worth, June 25-27. Each session has a unique theme that builds on the previous session and features nationally recognized experts in the fields of leadership development and education. Teams also work throughout the year on extended learning assignments between meetings.

Created in 1993, Leadership TASB has more than 900 graduates to date.

TASB is a voluntary, nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve local Texas school boards. School board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent serve more than 5.4 million public school students.