My Experience with Leadership ISD
Tarrant County Civic Voices Cohort, May 2023
My journey with Leadership ISD began with a nomination by the director of ELA. Leadership ISD were seeking candidates for their 2022-2023 Civic Voices Fellowship program. The goal of the fellowship is to empower communities to advance educational equity for all children. At Civic Voices Fellowship, I learned how to examine inequities related to race, socioeconomic status, language, and ability; gained an understanding of high-functioning school board governance; and played a key advocate role in school board elections.
For the first time, the early childhood department was represented on this fellowship. I had the opportunity to bring an early learning perspective and offer possible solutions to raise awareness at the school board level. Children are born learning! The first few years are critical because research demonstrates that high-quality early care and education is a crucial part of a child’s healthy development. It is important that school boards realize the importance of early learning. Implementing good policies, practices and board leadership lead better equitable learning outcomes for all children, including 0–5-year-olds. For a change to be made, it must happen locally. How? Simple. Go out and vote!
Did you know that the turnout for school board elections is often less than 10% of registered voters and many recent elections have been decided by fewer than 50 votes? This low level of engagement means that most people’s voices are not heard and that small, vocal groups who may not represent the community as a whole have tremendous sway in the outcomes, not only of individual races but in the trajectory of our schools. Therefore, it is vital to vote in every election! To learn more about school board governance, visit www.leadershipisd.org.
To address the low turnout, our group project was educating our community members in Tarrant County about school board governance and the role of a trustee. At the same time, we want to encourage our registered voters to vote and inspire community members to register to vote, if they haven't done so. We hosted a few school board candidate forums in Tarrant County for Fort Worth, Arlington, and Mansfield ISDs. Due to our efforts, over 3,000 voters visited Leadership ISD election hub to review candidate questionnaires and other resources to help them make an informed vote!
Now as a Leadership ISD alumni, I commit to being involved on my local school board by voting in each election and attending school board meetings in Azle. I will also share my new knowledge and connections with the Early Learning Alliance to raise awareness of school board governance and advocate for early childhood education by sharing resources on our social media platforms and monthly e-newsletters.
Applications for the 2023-2024 Civic Voices Fellowship are available.
For questions, email info@leadershipisd.org.
Written by: Rebecca Rueda, ELA Project Manager
