Tag

Texas Public Education

Power Supers Blog

By | Clients

Superintendents have innumerable superpowers—mentoring and guiding aspirational leaders is one many of them share. Huckabee is excited to launch a new blog, Power Supers, that focuses on stories of fortitude, growth and inspiration. Dr. Jim Vaszauskas, a life-long educator and administrator, is helping us “travel” the state to visit with educational leaders and share their stories in hopes of uplifting others.

The first stories in the series feature Dr. Brad Lancaster, former superintendent of Lake Travis ISD, who shares about the importance of relationship building; and Dr. Marc Smith, whose focus on simplification and anticipation has helped him realize success as superintendent of Duncanville ISD. To read these, and follow along as new stories are posted, visit the blog at PowerSupers.com. 

Investing in Public Education

By | News

Texas public education matters, and Huckabee continues to actively support and advocate for our partners in education as we collectively address critical needs. As a Board Member of the North Texas Commission, our CEO, Chris Huckabee, has joined numerous business and education leaders across the state to ask our elected officials to address public education recovery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Huckabee firm is supportive of this initiative.

Nineteen major business and education associations, backed by hundreds of public education advocates, signed a letter on June 29 urging elected leaders to enable a statewide task force to assess the challenges posed by COVID-19 to public education in six key areas:

  1. Maintenance of funding
  2. Connectivity, access to technology and contingency planning
  3. Professional development
  4. Assessment and support for students
  5. Health and safety
  6. Acknowledgement of the economic cost of inaction.

Read the letter here.

Through the North Texas Commission, Chris was also asked to join Dr. Susan Bohn, Aledo ISD Superintendent, to co-chair the Education & Workforce Task Force. The group has been charged to develop a list of legislative priorities that require action in the 87th Texas Legislative Session. The success of the previous legislative session brought finance reform to public education, yet, it remains critical that these reforms remain part of a long-term strategy to invest in Texas school districts.

“Together, we made great progress for public education in 2019, but COVID-19 will certainly create budget challenges for the legislature,” said Chris. “We will need a solid and unified voice in Austin this January to keep the ground we have gained and prevent challenges that a lack of funding will create.”