Carroll ISD Parents Grow Concerned About ‘Mission Creep’ With the District’s Strategic Planning Initiative
A top-notch educational experience, in a safe, supportive environment, is precisely what every parent expects from CISD for their children. Everything else is a distant second.
(panel, l.to.r: David Potenza, Ronell Smith, Kosse Maykus, Jeff Medici)
On Sept. 13, I took part in Carroll ISD’s kickoff of their strategic planning effort, appearing alongside three other community members as part of a business leader’s panel sharing ideas, opinions, and thoughts with the Board of Trustees during a Q&A session. (Also in attendance were the 11 principals for each school and a host of CISD administrators.)
I was only vaguely aware of this effort, but I happily took part, without any real expectations. We convened shortly after 1 PM in the CISD’s Lonesome Dove Training room.
After a short welcome and opening by asst. superintendent Dr. Courtney Carpenter and executive director of communications, Karen Fitzgerald, I joined David Potenza, Kosse Maykus, and Jeff Medici—at the center of the room.
Below I share the questions we were asked and my highly edited answers to each. (You can see the entire Q&A here: Team of 8. The video lasts about an hour.)
What are your highest hopes for our community’s children?
That they receive the best quality education possible, one that prepares them for the world outside of Southlake and that places them in the optimal position to be successful as adults.
How has your industry and work changed over time? Describe the culture, climate, and competitive landscape then and now.
Automation. Many of the manual tasks people typically spent hours each day doing are now automated, allowing people to be far more productive in far less time. I work in digital marketing, which is fast-moving and attracts people who can be nimble thinkers, who can learn fast, and who can iterate quickly.
Preparing our kids for this world is a must, for every industry is either highly digitized or moving quickly to do so. Plus, no matter our kids’ career choices, digital competence or, indeed, proficiency, is essential.
Schools can help prepare kids to be better prepared for this future by helping them grow and develop their critical thinking muscles. Our kids must be able to think critically to compete successfully.
What is the knowledge and skill-set you or your industry are seeking to keep your industry relevant, competitive, and on the cutting edge of the competition?
Critical thinking. Resilience. Grit. Determination. Aside from my personal experience, I read a lot on this topic. The world ahead of our kids is fast-moving and competitive. They’ll need technical proficiency no matter their career path. They’ll also need to be fast learners, have a willingness to build and grow a vast network of friends and supporters, and have the resilience to fail often and bounce back.
What would you want public schools to know about producing future leaders and how can we best prepare students for their future in industries like yours?
I want CISD to focus on delivering the best education possible. The end. That means the best teaching, the best educational environment, and exemplary coursework to match. Kids graduating from Carroll would have grown up in supportive households, been a part of a strong, vibrant community, and had access to the resources they need to be successful. CISD plays an instrumental role in being singularly focused on our kids’ educational experience.
That’s no small thing, mind you. Our kids should feel safe, supported, and welcomed in our schools. That’s table stakes. Add to that a top-flight education, and parents are happy to have decided to live here. However, no one—and I mean no one—expects CISD to assume the role of their kids’ parents. That’s how we got into trouble in 2020.
We need CISD to keep the main thing the main thing; that means providing our kids with the best education imaginable.
When thinking of Carroll ISD and our tradition of excellence along with your highest hopes, what does excellence for CISD look like for the next three years and beyond?
I want my kids to look back on their years at CISD and think “I couldn’t have had a better educational experience.” Also, that they loved how their teachers supported and challenged them, that they enjoyed the friendships they built with classmates, and that the administration was forward-thinking in building a curriculum that prepared them for college and behind. As a parent, I want to think, after my kids are away at college or busy in their careers, “CISD gave our kids the best education available.” Everything else is a distant second. What I fear, however, is that the administration starts thinking they need to be all things to all people.
Trust me, NO ONE places their kids in CISD thinking, “a high-quality education is optionable.” People pay a premium to be here; the desire for parents to have their kids in CISD fuels that premium.
My larger point is, no matter what else a parent expects from CISD, it comes after the educational experience you provide—safe, supportive, and welcoming, in addition to a top-notch curriculum and exemplary instruction. When we’ve nailed those areas with consistency, maybe, just maybe, we can focus on other areas, like leadership.
People don’t buy BMWs expecting Porsches, and people don’t expect a Porsche when they buy a Lamborghini. We must, first and foremost, give parents what they expect.
Additionally…
Leadership was a strong theme throughout the discussion. As in, “What can CISD do to foster leadership in our kids?” It was the dominant thread, in fact. I said CISD had bigger, more important fish to fry at this juncture than focusing attention on leadership training.
I was happy CISD board member Cam Bryan asked where will teachers find the time to teach leadership training—and, potentially which courses would it replace?—in addition to their normal course load. And, given that our kids’ days are full, where would we add in leadership training during the school day?
We need to support our teachers—who’ve had what I hope is the toughest year they’ll ever have teaching, in 2020—as they help our kids play catch up. “No parent is going to look back and think ‘I wish CISD helped my child become a better leader’ if we don’t get the excellent education thing right. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing,” I said.
One more thing…
As soon as I left the meeting, I started hearing from parents who’d watched the live stream of the panel discussion. The conversations all began the same way. With lots and lots of questions.
“Thanks for speaking with the voice of and for the community,” said one mother. “We need CISD to focus on education. That’s our expectation.” Another parent, who called as I enjoyed a beer later that afternoon, said “What is even the goal of this strategic planning thing, anyway? Carroll ISD had better wake up: I didn’t send my kids back to school for leadership training. I want them in school to learn.”
In the weeks since the meeting, I’ve heard from even more parents, most of whom took part in the summits held in late September. I spoke to more than a dozen people who attended at least one summit, and they all had the same question: “What is CISD trying to accomplish [with this initiative]?”
One mother of three young Carroll Dragons was terse: “Based on the how these summits were conducted, which basically amounted to people taking them over to further their political agenda, I’m not very confident that it was time well-spent.”
The consensus was that no one clearly understood what the overarching goals of the meetings were.
“This feels a lot like mission creep to me,” said a longtime Southlake resident whose kids are now in college. “We pay too much in taxes for [CISD administrators] to be going off on these expeditions. If anything, they should have learned that we are not going to tolerate them focusing on much of anything outside of education.”
I must confess, these were welcome messages because I thought I was out of the loop on what parents are signaling to the district.
One final thing…
As luck would have it, my oldest daughter asked me what I did that day. When I told her about the planning session, she unloaded:
“I agree with everything you said, Dad. But, they can teach leadership training,” she said. “All they have to do is refocus some of the current electives we take.”
She listed three electives that would be ideal locations for leadership training, assuming CISD finds it necessary to offer it.
Interested to read your thoughts in the comments below.