Frisco ISD, once one of the fastest-growing school districts in North Texas, now faces a new reality: it is landlocked, built out, and experiencing declining enrollment. In a recent episode of The Building Texas Show, host Justin McKenzie spoke with two-term trustee Stephanie Elad about the implications of this shift for teachers, families, and taxpayers. Elad, a corporate HR executive, shared insights from her tenure on the board, including how she brought a confidential third-party employee engagement survey to the district to improve teacher retention and how the district is building apprenticeship pathways in plumbing, electrical, and HVAC alongside existing CTE tracks.
Elad's journey to the school board began with a controversial moment at an April 2021 board meeting, where the board president said, "this is our meeting, not the community's." The comment triggered a standing ovation from some attendees and statewide press coverage, prompting Elad to run for office in 2022. "That just did not sit right with me," she recalled. "I didn't like it." Her HR background has been central to her governance approach, as she noted that tough conversations with staff and parents have never been foreign to her.
On workforce readiness, Elad emphasized the importance of trade careers, pointing to a neighbor who owns a plumbing business and clears a couple hundred thousand dollars a year but cannot find apprentice plumbers. She argued that Frisco high schoolers should be able to enter apprenticeship programs earning $60,000 to $70,000 within a year or two of graduation, without debt or a four-year degree. McKenzie connected this to his advisory work with the startup Founding Up and to PTECH welding programs in the San Antonio area, where students graduate with as many as 60 college credit hours through community college partnerships.
The episode also touched on the district's new superintendent, hired roughly a month before taping, and Elad's renewed optimism about Frisco ISD's next chapter. She urged families to vote in low-turnout school board elections, emphasizing that community engagement is critical for the district's future. The full episode of The Building Texas Show, titled "Frisco's Population Boom: What's Really Happening?", is available now on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
