Leadership TASB Class of 2025 Launches at txEDCON

The 34 members of the Leadership TASB Class of 2025 wasted no time getting to work exploring best practices in education as they kicked off the yearlong training program in September during txEDCON24 in San Antonio. 

Jeff Larson, a trustee from Clear Creek ISD, said he applied to the leadership training program because he wanted to take his abilities to serve his district to the next level. While he wasn’t sure what to expect, as he was just getting his bearings, he was looking forward to what the program would bring. 

“It looks like an opportunity to tap into some great minds, and I’m optimistic,” he said. “Certainly, you know, just getting to see how other people do things is important.” 

Every year at its first meeting, a new cohort gets an introduction to the program, its norms and expectations, and then the members begin bonding and connecting which is integral to the LTASB experience.  

"This year, we started the program off strong and integrated field trips in our inaugural weekend,” said Robert Long III, division director of Board Development Services and LTASB program manager. “The trustees wanted to get boots on the ground and see how districts on military bases do things. It was the perfect way to capture the importance of this work they will be doing.” 

Trustees will have three more field trips. They will be traveling to El Paso, Austin, Brazos and the Research Valley, and concluding the program presenting their final capstone projects prior to graduation in Fort Worth in June 2025 during Summer Leadership Institute. 

Leadership TASB was developed and designed by school board members for school board members in 1993 as part of TASB's goal to provide visionary leadership to Texas school boards. At the time, the TASB Board of Directors wanted to increase trustee involvement and offer advanced educational training and leadership opportunities to members. Since its founding, LTASB has developed into the premier school board training program in the state with more than 1,000 alumni Master Trustees. 

Every May, the application opens for the program and a maximum of 35 trustees are selected each year. The expectation is that those chosen for the highly selective program will use the experiences they have through the immersive experiences to engage their communities, advocate on behalf of public education students, and make achieving excellent outcomes a priority for their districts, thereby leading to better educational outcomes for all Texas public school students. 

While Michael Valdez may still be a college student, he’s been an Edgewood ISD school board trustee for nearly two years. He applied to participate in LTASB at the urging of a mentor on his board.  

“They’ve been telling me about the opportunity and experiences that they’ve had and the LTASB community that I would learn from.” 

Building those connections with trustees outside his own board was a motivating factor for applying, he said. 

Like Valdez, many of the LTASB cohort had colleagues who encouraged them to apply to the yearlong leadership program.  

Robert Anderson of West Rusk County Consolidated ISD has been on his board for six years and decided to apply after hearing about the program from Will Sudweeks, a trustee on his board who is also an LTASB alumni, Class of 2019. 

“He began talking to me about it, trying to coach me into it,” Anderson said. “Finally, I just decided to hook up. Sounds like a pretty good program. Definitely can’t hurt and hopefully it will help me to grow to be a better leader, a better communicator, and overall, a better board member.”