Texas Celebrates January As School Board Month

As C-FB ISD educators and local citizens, we join with the state of Texas in observing January as School Board Recognition Month. More than 7,300 citizens serve as School Board members in Texas.

Nancy Cline, President

James Goode,
Vice President

Richard Fleming,
Secretary

Lynn Chaffin,
Assistant Secretary

Locally, the C-FB ISD Board of Trustees is the body that governs and develops polices to help our school district be a leader in public education not only in Texas but in the United States.

As the district’s elected governing body, the School Board’s key roles include:

• Ensuring the creation of a vision and goals for the district
• Communicating the district’s vision, goals and successes to the community
• Adopting policies that guide district actions
• Adopting the annual tax rate and budget

• Monitoring district finances
• Hiring a superintendent to serve as the district's administrator and evaluating the superintendent’s success
• Overseeing the regular assessment of the district’s students, staff, and programs 

We salute the seven individuals who serve as the elected representatives of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District. Your current School Board members are Nancy Cline, James Goode, Richard Fleming, Lynn Chaffin, Frank Shor, Nancy Watten and Karin Webb.

The seven individuals who serve as the C-FB ISD Board of Trustees volunteer hundreds of hours. Not only do they attend regular meetings and work-study sessions, but they attend athletic and fine arts events as well as school celebrations, community activities and numerous other meetings. 



Frank Shor



Nancy Watten

They focus all their decisions toward the district goal of high achievement for all students.  They also spend time sharing the "bright spots" of C-FB ISD with our community. They also spend time listening to our citizens. They serve as the district's ambassadors to our community.



Karin Webb

The Board holds one regular meeting a month from September through June. All regular meetings are the first Thursday of each month except January. Regular meetings begin at 7 p.m. and are held in the Board Room of the Administration Building.


You can find all agendas online prior to the meetings. These meetings are the time when the Board conducts the "business of the school district."  They have the opportunity to recognize our teachers, staff, students and business partners during these monthly meetings. The educational team usually gives a presentation that focuses on student achievement.  We also may share other information that relates to one

of the other strategic objectives.

Citizens are encouraged to attend any and all of the regular School Board meetings. Regular meetings are replayed on CFB-TV and on our online Vimeo Channel.



The Board also holds a series of work-study sessions to delve into topics that need more in-depth discussion and review. These meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. You are invited to attend these too. We have three more scheduled for this school year.  They are

• February 16, Resource Allocation

• April 19, Grading

• June 28, Accountability and Planning for the 2012-2013 year.

Last year, our Board developed a “Standards of Professional Practice” manual. The document was created to guide the Board’s actions and assist them in their roles in as Trustees. 

Under the Texas Education Code, School Board members are required to take continuing education classes annually. C-FB ISD Board members have always  taken courses well before the legislative mandate.  Your current School Board members believe in life-long learning, and they annually exceed the state-required eight hours of continuing education credit they each must earn.  They attend numerous workshops and seminars to learn how they can help with the district's singular goal of high achievement for all students.  C-FB ISD Board members also meet with
Trustees from other Texas public school districts to learn best practices to bring back to C-FB ISD.

Because of the time that our School Board members spend learning on their own, they have a better understanding of what is happening in our state and nation when it comes to finances.  That is why, C-FB ISD has been able to weather the financial storm better than many other school districts.  The other classes they have taken have helped them gain knowledge about what our teachers, principals and instructional team members are doing to move student achievement forward.  As we share data on student achievement issues, programs and projects, our Trustees have insightful questions because they have background knowledge because of the training they attend. 

  

As a community and educational team, we should be pleased that our C-FB ISD School Board is an effective governing body who takes its role seriously and believes in our vision and goal of high achievement for all students.  We in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch School District thank our seven School Board members for the hours you spend in helping our students achieve at high levels.