By NICOLE RAPHIEL
Impact DeSoto Team Member
DeSoto City Council, Place 3
Last month, a group of public education advocates hosted a kickoff event for the community coalition, Impact DeSoto. Over 60 members of the DeSoto community turned out to talk about the issues facing DeSoto ISD and learn more about how they can elect high-quality school board leadership and hold them accountable to better outcomes for their students.
The coalition has since gathered questionnaire responses from Trustee candidates to help DeSoto voters understand each candidate’s positions and priorities. Along with that, they provided a tool for assessing candidates’ understanding of the role and commitment to proper governance: The Roles and Responsibilities of a Trustee and the 10 Criteria for Effective School Board Leadership. School board elections are coming up in many areas and Impact DeSoto is encouraging the community to use this tool to evaluate candidates.
The coalition is focused on three components:
- Educating our community on what makes a school board trustee effective
- Sharing candidate questionnaires and opportunities to attend forums
- Mobilizing our friends and networks to make an informed vote for Trustee on May 7th!
“I’m proud to be a part of a dynamic group of public education advocates called Impact DeSoto who are working to get our community informed about what makes a candidate effective for our kids and I’m hoping our community will join us. It’s time.”
Founding Members of Impact DeSoto are:
Leon Darden
David Edgerson
La’Ryon Witherspoon
Robin Johnsonford
Chasiti McKissic
