(Austin) –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.