News & Events
Developing the Potential
Leadership TASB 20th Year Ushered in with Class of 2013
by Susan Turner
Editor’s note: The staff, class
members, and graduates of the
Association’s Leadership TASB
program would like to extend a
note of appreciation to the program’s 2012-13 sponsor, H-E-B.
Through such grants and
support, Leadership TASB is able
to continue to offer high-quality
leadership training to local school
trustees at the grassroots level.
to the public schoolchildren
of Texas formed the common
ground that would make us a
team.
Pythons, Picasso, and Pythagoras may seem unusual topics of conversation deep in the heart of Texas, but this was the intriguing invitation
delivered to 36 freshly minted
Leadership TASB members
gathered in Austin in September 2012. Over dinner, debate,
and dessert, the Class of 2013
was introduced to each other
and to our mission.
Leadership TASB Director
Bill Rutherford was given the
daunting task of shaping into
a cohesive unit this spirited
group drawn from across the
Pecos down to the Rio Grande
and all points in between.
Under his masterful guidance and with the exceptional
organizational skills of TASB
staff members Jessica Murray and Michele Freeman, the
20th class of Leadership TASB
students became one.
Before the Austin weekend
was over, trustees from districts surrounded by miles and
miles of Texas were collaborating with trustees governing in
the shadow of gleaming skyscrapers. Their commitment
Hitting the Ground
Running
The Leadership TASB
experience is nothing if not
intense. We hit the ground
running each morning with 7
a.m. working breakfasts, and
the pace never slowed. At the
top of the Austin schedule
was a trip to the Lady Bird
Johnson Wildflower Center,
where the native stone and
natural colors of Texas honor
heritage and celebrate history
not written by the hand of
man. Among the many things
we do for our children, preserving these places is one we
should not cast aside.
Against the backdrop of
the former First Lady’s legacy,
Mark Updegrove, director of
the Lyndon Baines Johnson
Presidential Library, shared
his insight into the leadership
of our 36th president. Most
of us having lived through
the 1960s, we sat transfixed
listening to recently declassified recordings preserving
the artistry with which LBJ
worked both sides of the
aisle and applied the “
Johnson treatment” to build his
Great Society. His leadership
in passing of monumental
civil rights legislation and
sweeping educational reform
in the tumultuous aftermath
of President John Kennedy’s
assassination and during the
Photo by Patrick Morris
At far right, Brad Brown, principal of Comal ISD’s Canyon High
School, leads members of the Leadership TASB Class of 2013
on a tour of the campus. Comal ISD serves more than 18,000
students on 27 campuses.
height of the war in Vietnam is
nothing short of phenomenal.
Leadership in Texas public
education is drawn from a
diverse set of stakeholders.
Presenter Pete DeLisle of the
Posey Leadership Institute
at Austin College helped us
discover where each of us falls
within the leadership continuum and harness the collective
strengths individuals bring to
the table.
Debra Fine, motivational
speaker and author of The Fine
Art of Small Talk, outfitted our
team with tools empowering
us to become the confident,
effective communicators that
leadership and advocacy
demand.
