When asked about his recent trip to Frisco’s CTE center, Larry Anderson, the founder and director of the National Center for Technology Planning, said “The whole of greater Dallas should take pride in what has happened in Frisco. Not only has the school been built beautifully but there is a social and cultural shift that has the potential of elevating the nation.”

On a Wednesday evening, September 26, 2007, that began to change. At a joint meeting of the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees and the Frisco City Council, both entities voted to proceed with negotiations regarding a public-private project with the Dallas Stars to expand the Dr. Pepper Star Center. Jim Lites, president of the Dallas Stars, presented the concept plans to the leaders with assistance from representatives from HKS Partners architects.

Under the plan, the entire facility would be reworked, along with adding a 1,000 car parking garage. The conceptual plan showed everything being upgraded – lighting, acoustics, video capability, and mechanics. Capacity would increase to 6,000 seats, including floor space. Jim Lites stated that the timeline for completion was May 2009.

On May 5, 2009 Frisco High School held their graduation as the first event in the updated facility.  Centennial, Liberty, and Wakeland held their graduations the next day.

I wish that all of you could have been there to witness the sense of gratitude and pride so evident in our students, parents, and educators as four senior classes graduated in style and with dignity. So many attendees remarked as to how pleased they were to have access to such an awesome facility in such close proximity.  Each ceremony was an unqualified success and our students will enjoy the benefits for many years to come.

It has become a tradition in Frisco ISD to have a luncheon for the top ten students in each high school and their Honored Teachers.  The tradition first started around eight years ago when Frisco ISD only had one high school. This year, Liberty High School became the fourth Frisco High School to attend this event as they prepare to graduate their charter class.

Not only is it a huge honor for the students and their parents to celebrate being ranked in the top ten students at their schools, it is also a big honor for certain teachers.  You see, the students are allowed to invite one teacher to serve as their Honored Teacher. These teachers have distinguished themselves in the eyes of their students.  The message from the students was consistent. These teachers went above and beyond just teaching them a subject. They have taught them about life and also served as both a friend and mentor.

Visit the Frisco ISD Web Site for a list of the top ten students from each school.

Here is a picture of the Liberty High School top ten students and their honored teachers (although a couple of the teachers missed the photo op).

These events would not be possible without the help and leadership of our parent volunteers. I know full well that it is a lot of work, but it is also very rewarding. Please consider volunteering at your school.

Here are just a few pictures of the LHS event.

Each high school campus nominates four students who will normally serve on this committee for the remainder of their high school career. They usually meet once a month over lunch to discuss any issues on their mind directly with the Superintendent, Dr. Rick Reedy.  Dr. Reedy has stated that the first year, most of them are pretty quiet and just listen. But by the time they are seniors and they all know each other better, they don’t hold anything back.

During any given discussion, you will often find Dr. Reedy explaining why things are done a certain way and the students challenging him with what they feel would be a better way. Having had a daughter serve on this committee for three years and watching it as a board member for seven years, I can tell you that they really are a positive change agent for our district. Dr. Reedy has admitted that he learns a great deal from these spirited discussions.

Here is a picture of this year’s committee as they gather for their final lunch meeting of the year at Babe’s.

There is a lot of talk about the wonderful sketch artist and so I thought that I would share a sketch of some lucky guy.

Some people have questioned why certain topics have very little discussion in the public board meetings.  To understand that, you must understand all the work that leads up to that point.

First of all, the board and administration does a lot of the hard work in the subcommittee meetings. Each board member will typically serve on five or six subcommittees aligned with their particular interest or skills.  These subcommittees may meet several times before bringing the items to the full board for consideration. When the items do make it to the full board, we know that there has already been substantial consideration and research. Here are our subcommittees and the ones of which I am a member:

• Employee Benefits
• Long Range Planning and Capital Improvements Committee Meeting (*)
• Budget Committee (*)
• Child Nutrition
• Communications
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Board Policy Review (*)
• Transportation Committee
• Superintendent Evaluation & Compensation
• Facilities Naming Subcommittee (*)
• Technology Committee (*)

The next thing to keep in mind is that the larger, more important/complex topics will span many months of consideration. For example, we first started talking about the budget in the January timeframe and will not officially adopt the budget until the June or July meeting. The board also receives weekly “board updates” from administration. In the public meeting you will often hear board members ask for additional information and the Superintendent will instruct his staff to “please provide that information in the board update”.

As the public board meeting approaches, we will receive the materials for consideration.  At the last board meeting, this consisted of approximately 120+ pages of confidential background information surrounding a level three grievance.  The official board book itself was 261 pages. We spend several days reviewing the information and will often seek clarification of the person responsible for each request, normally the senior administrative staff.

Now it’s time for the board meeting. Here is the timeline from our last board meeting, which was fairly typical:

• 6:00PM to 6:45PM – We host a reception to honor our students who have received State or National level recognition. We had five students achieve National Merit Finalist this year.  Many more were honored for their state level recognition.
• 6:45PM to 7:15PM – We have dinner with the newly announced Principals of Lone Star High School, Anderson Elementary, and the Frisco Early Childhood School.
• 7:15PM to 7:30PM – Executive session to discuss legal matters with our attorney.
• 7:30PM to 9:45PM – The regular public board meeting.  John Hoxie is officially sworn in as a school board trustee.
• 9:45PM to 10:45PM – Closed session deliberations on the level three grievance.
• 10:45PM to 11:00PM – Final actions and wrap-up. Meeting is adjourned.

I hope that this gives you some idea of a typical board meeting. See the Frisco ISD web site for specific highlights related to this meeting.

Scholarships are awarded based on specific criteria established by donor(s). Some donors look to recognize a student who has excelled academically or is an active community citizen, others look for students that have worked hard to achieve success without being at the top of their class. Still others are awarded for specific career goals and/or financial need.  Scholarships range from $500 to $8000.

The FEF Scholarships are sponsored through donations from community organizations, businesses, caring individuals and fundraisers such as the Gary Burns Frisco Fun Run, Annual Chili Challenge, and various other events in the community.

It was an honor for me to help hand out the payroll deduction scholarships which went to 51 students this year.   I would like to thank the Frisco ISD staff for their generosity on behalf of our students.

See the Frisco ISD Web Site for more information.

Shattered Dreams is a two-day program designed to drive home the dangers of drinking and driving. In dramatic fashion, Frisco police officers, firefighters and air ambulance crews respond to a staged, mock DWI crash outside the High School. By design, this program takes place just before Prom.

Emergency crews simulate medical treatment for students portraying the victims, and other students posing as the “drunk driver”.  The “victim” students will be transported by ambulance and CareFlite to Centennial Medical Center, while the “deceased” student will be transported by Turrentine Jackson & Morrow Funeral Home. The “drunk driver” will be arrested and transported to the Frisco Detention Facility for book-in and arraignment.

A “Grim Reaper” appears in classrooms every fifteen minutes, selecting students to illustrate Texas’ sobering statistic of someone being killed every fifteen minutes by a drunk driver. Students selected as “living dead” return to class in white face makeup and instructions not to talk. Parents are tasked with writing obituaries (my wife had to do this) and the living dead spend the night away from their families and friends.

On the second day, the students attend a mock funeral, followed by an assembly. Student actors will share their impressions and community leaders will talk about teenage alcohol abuse. In addition to performances by members of the LHS Choir, scheduled speakers include Frisco PD Chaplain Murphy, Dr. Robert Simonson of Methodist Hospital, and LHS Principal Mike Waldrip.

Shattered Dreams is a cooperative effort between the Frisco Independent School District, the Frisco Police Department, and the Frisco Fire Department.

See the Frisco ISD Web Site for more information.

The city has committed to having Eldorado widened in front of the school and the traffic light installed at the intersection of Eldorado and Independence before the start of school. This is the only schedule that still has me concerned, but I have confidence in George and the city staff.

To all the future Heritage High School Coyotes, you are going to be amazed and very proud of your new school.

See the Frisco ISD Web Site for more information.

Heritage Construction Progress - April 2009

Monday was a very joyous occasion as we recognized our Frisco ISD staff that received 5, 10, 15, 25, 30, and 35 year service pins. It was scheduled to coincide with a teacher work day, so we had almost our entire staff (4900+) fill the home side of Memorial Stadium. Thankfully the weather cooperated.

As a board member, this is one of the most enjoyable events of the year. It was especially meaningful for me this year as my daughters are now seniors. This means that there were quite a few teachers receiving 10 year pins that we had as teachers. Each and every one of them had a lasting impact on my children. I hope that all of our teachers realize the huge impact that they have on our world by touching so many lives.

That night we had a dinner to recognize the service recipients with 10 year or more of service. I would like to offer a special congratulation to Charlie Mooneyham for his 35 years of service to Frisco ISD. You can see all the honorees on the Frisco Web site.

In this post I will simply outline some of activities that I have been involved in during the past week. Keep in mind that most of the Trustees have full time jobs outside of the district, so all of these activities are in addition.

When reading any of these blog entries, please keep in mind that it is not a Trustees role to be involved in or to oversee the day-to-day operations of the school district. We hold the Superintendent responsible for all operations and by law and good practice we must allow him the authority to perform this job.  I happen to think that we have one of the best school districts in the state, and with 4,293 employees it is a really large operation.

Here are some of the activities that I have been involved with over the last week:

Clean it & Green it!

My wife is leading the 2009 Liberty Senior Parents committee and one of our activities was participation in the city’s Clean it & Green it! We didn’t have the participation like the elementary schools but we still managed to collect quite a few bags of trash. I can tell you that the fast food of choice at Liberty is Chick-fil-A. Other activities during the week included organizing the After Prom Party, Senior Field Trip, and Baccalaureate.  Trying to coordinate these activities is a huge amount of work and if you really want to communicate with the 17/18 year old students get a fellow student to setup something on Facebook. This is more effective than emails, school announcements, or signs.

Technology in the Classroom

The School Board has many working subcommittees and one of the most active is the Technology Subcommittee of which I am a member.  This subcommittee has been working very closely with the Curriculum subcommittee regarding technology in the classroom. The technology department has setup a wiki to allow the teachers to share some of their experiences. See https://wiki.friscoisd.org/groups/justbraggin/.

Stadium Light Poles

I’m sure that you have heard about the light pole issues. Frisco ISD does have a few manufactured by the now bankrupt company. We hired an independent engineering firm to perform a thorough structural inspection of these often overlooked, but critical infrastructure facilities. None of our poles exhibited any evidence of base plate to pole shaft weld cracking. The engineering firm did suggest a few maintenance procedures which we will address as well as establishing an annual plan to evaluate all poles.

Swine Flu

Our administrative staff is monitoring this situation very closely. Keep watching the Frisco ISD Website for updates.

As of 6:00pm Friday, May 1st, there are 293,081 students across Texas affected by school closings. Within Frisco ISD, our attendance on Thursday was 97.3% which is actually quite high for this time of the year.

Frisco Early Chilhdood School

FISD EARLY CHILHDOOD SCHOOL

You can’t help but laugh at this one. One of our ever alert Frisco Police Officers snapped the following picture and sent it to Chief Renshaw. Obviously our Chief could not pass up this opportunity and so he forwarded it to Dr. Reedy (with comment ). Dr. Reedy sent it to the Board with the comment, “A perfect end to a perfect week” – sarcasm obviously intended since it has been a very trying week.