For Immediate Release: February, 2010

Contact: Bill Rutherford, 800.580.8272, ext. 6169

Local Trustee Attends Program on Advocacy

(Austin) – Julie James of Lovejoy ISD was among a group of school board members gathering in
Corpus Christi February 11-13 to learn the latest on 21st century challenges to leadership and how those trends
have implications for educators. Session theme for this, the third of five training sessions of Leadership TASB
(LTASB), was “Where Leadership Happens through Becoming an Advocate for All.”
Trustees began activities Thursday by continuing their book study of The Relentless Search for Better
Ways by Paul Bearden and touring campuses at West Oso Independent School District, a district that has made
significant progress in moving from low performing status to high performing on state accountability measures.
Thursday’s keynote speaker was Lisa Ramirez, Ed.D., national director of migrant education for the U.S.
Department of Education. In her presentation, When Was the Last Time you Checked Your Filter, Ramirez urged
school board members to focus on the most important natural resource in education – the human resource by
first defining the personal principles that drive all decision making.
At Friday’s LTASB session, Simon T. Bailey, founder, The Brilliance Institute, Inc. and author of
Release Your Brilliance, identified what makes one “brilliant” and inspired board members to use those qualities
to increase success in every area. He also challenged the board members to recommit to their schools and to their
communities. Friday also included a tour of Agua Dulce ISD, a small, rural school district that was academically
recognized, with a very different student population group from their counterparts in West Oso ISD. Activities
ended Saturday with the presentation of findings by the school board members on group research on education
accountability measures and how Texas compares with other states on national measures.
Selected by TASB, the group of 36 trustees is participating in a year-long education leadership study
program. The Leadership TASB class of 2010 represents Texas school districts of all sizes, with student
populations of 275 to 62,000, and reflects the range of property wealth. Participants who complete all required
elements of the study will graduate next year with a unique graduation designation recognized by TASB.
Each session has a specific theme that builds on the previous session and features state and nationally
recognized experts in the fields of leadership development and education. Teams also work on extended learning
assignments between meetings throughout the year. Created in 1993, Leadership TASB has almost 550
graduates to date.
TASB is a voluntary, nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve local Texas school districts.
School board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent
serve approximately 4.7 million public school students.