School Board Appreciation—Servant Leadership

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January is School Board Appreciation month in Texas and as a school district we traditionally take this opportunity to recognize and honor our Board of Trustees for their service to the Pampa ISD. As with many things this past year, we are celebrating our Board a little differently this year. Before covid, we invited our Board members to join many activities on our campuses. Additionally, our culinary arts students would prepare a meal for the January Board meeting in which spouses and district leadership would attend to enjoy food and fellowship with our esteemed trustees. Of course, we are still following covid-19 protocols and want to continue to keep everyone as healthy and safe as possible, so we have modified our celebrations this year with hopes to bring back these wonderful traditions very soon!

As I reflected on the service and work of our Board this past year, I found myself with a genuine feeling of respect and gratitude for the efforts and actions of each Board member. I have always appreciated their altruistic mindset and their service to our school district and community. As you know, serving on the school board is both an elected position but also completely voluntary. They spend hundreds of hours reading policy, education law, district documents, preparing for meetings, participating in meetings, and being accessible in our community to stakeholders. This is the job! However, when covid-19 became a real concern for our community, the Pampa ISD Board didn’t shy away from the work nor did they back off from their commitments.

I am so very proud of the genuine concern our Board showed for our students, staff, and community’s safety all the while acting out their roles and responsibilities with a balanced and common-sense approach. They were quick to pass local policy that provided our district the flexibility we needed to meet the immediate and long-term needs of our students. They appropriated funds to acquire much needed safety equipment, supplies, devices, and even staff to do the most important work at each step of the way. I am so grateful for them not only as a Superintendent, but as a mother of a PISD student and as a member of the Pampa community.

We are not out of the woods with COVID-19 just yet, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our Board of Trustees have worked alongside me and our staff every step of the way showing the compassion and commitment of true servant leaders. As we begin to look to the future, our Board has begun a strategic visioning and goal development process that will result in a 5 year plan to ensure that our students have the opportunities and resources they need to meet the mission of our district: to become learners who are compassionate, competent, confident and future-ready! I know that they will continue to lead with servant-hearts and student-centered minds! Please join me in celebrating our Trustees:

Matt Brock, President

Lance DeFever, Vice President

Luis Nava, Secretary

Cay Warner, Member

Richard Qualls, Member

Denise Intemann, Member

Dr. David Godino, Member