TASB Hosts Administrative Professionals at Annual Conference
TASB hosted the first round of its 2024-25 Conference for Administrative Professionals Oct. 24-25 at its headquarters in Austin. The Association welcomed more than 100 administrative professionals from school districts and education service centers across Texas for two days of specialized programming and networking.
“School administrative professionals are the lifeblood of districts across Texas,” said TASB Deputy Executive Director Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield. “They ensure superintendents and board members can best serve their communities. That’s why the Texas Association of School Boards works to support and highlight these unsung heroes of public education.”
This twice-a-year opportunity brings in both new and returning faces, as TASB continues to offer new ways to support the important work of administrative professionals.
Lakiska Clausell is a division secretary for the Region 4 ESC who has spent 14 years in public education. She attended the conference for a third year, citing the continued learning opportunities as a reason to keep coming back.
“This conference is great, and we always love to come here,” Clausell said. “You all have always been very thorough in going over policy and just keeping us up to date with what’s new in public education.”
Conference-goers were offered a wide range of sessions to attend, most presented by TASB’s in-house public education experts. Some of the topics discussed included legal questions, policy, mental health, board meeting minutes, and working with superintendents. For Melody Vega, one topic stood out as being particularly useful and timely.
“I found the presentation on artificial intelligence to be very exciting, fun, and informative,” said Vega, a first-time attendee and administrative assistant from Flour Bluff ISD, a district in Corpus Christi of little over 5,500 students. “It really made me want to go back home and see how I can do more with it for my district.”
The conference concluded with superintendents and their administrative professionals from Pflugerville and Wimberley ISDs making presentations on leadership and relationship building. While these discussions focused primarily on working relationships between superintendents and their administrative assistants, they highlighted something important that can be applied to the role of administrative professionals at large: people skills.
The job is customer service, noted Shelley Martin from Midland ISD.
“I like helping people and anything that I can bring back positively for our district to learn and get better at that is always what we strive for,” Martin said.
Registration is open for the next TASB Conference for Administrative Professionals, being held Feb. 20-21, 2025. Visit the admin conference events page to secure your spot.
Matt Mitchell
Matt Mitchell serves as senior communications specialist for the Communications, Marketing, and Events team. He contributes to TASB.org and Texas Lone Star magazine, hosts the TABS Talks podcast, and creates and manages content for TASB social media.
Mitchell previously served as a communications specialist at The University of Texas at Austin, where he focused on internal communications and staff-focused content for the web. He also previously worked for KXAN-TV as social media manager, where he managed the station’s daily social media content and long-form marketing campaigns.
Mitchell is a graduate of Oklahoma State University, where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
