San Angelo ISD Hosted School District Leaders from Across the State at TASA Conference

San Angelo Independent School District leaders collaborated with the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) to bring the Future-Ready Superintendents Leadership Network (FRSLN) Fall professional event of nearly 200 superintendents and leaders from across the state to San Angelo for three days of authentic learning experiences from October 26 through October 28, 2021. The event centered around the emerging needs of school leaders while maintaining an emphasis on how to transform Texas public education to meet the needs of 21st century students.

FRSLN is a superintendent-designed and superintendent-led group of future-focused school leaders working to expand leadership and advance school transformation for Texas schools. SAISD Superintendent Dr. Carl Dethloff and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Jana Rueter serve as design team leaders for FRSLN, and proposed San Angelo as a great host city for the event. FRSLN provides members the opportunity to collaborate with other school district leaders to intentionally design their learning organizations to create conditions and capacities most conducive for leaders, teachers and students to perform at high levels to ultimately move districts forward and better prepare students to be future-ready.

“With this FRSLN event, leaders were provided an engaging opportunity to learn about successful businesses and institutions, and how they advanced to keep pace with the times. By learning from them, we are able to connect those effective attributes to our public school system,” said Dr. Dethloff. “We explored San Angelo together, witnessed organizational transformation and innovation, and heard insights first-hand from leaders of businesses with great stamina.”

SAISD administrators, staff and students worked together with TASA and FRSLN staff to coordinate the event, which was hosted at local landmark facilities like the San Angelo Performing Arts Center (SAPAC) Murphey Hall, Brooks and Bates Theater, the San 
Angelo Museum of Fine Arts (SAMFA), and the historic Cactus Hotel. Event highlights included a welcome by State Representative Drew Darby, breakout sessions on topics of innovation and transformation, visits to successful, impactful organizations in San Angelo like Shannon Medical Center and M.L. Leddy’s, guest speakers President and CEO of the San Angelo Area Foundation Matt Lewis and Angelo State President General Ronnie Hawkins, and a superintendent panel selected by the attendees. 

With an estimated economic impact for the City of between $60,000 to $65,000, the FRSLN event not only brought attendees from around the state to stay and dine in San Angelo, but also introduced many to San Angelo that were not aware of the unique aspects of the city and attractions for visitors. Attendees commented on being surprised at the extensive arts community as well as shared their interest in the rich ranching history and welcoming community of San Angelo. Some noted plans to return for a visit, including one district leader with plans to come back with her spouse to select and purchase a pair of custom M.L. Leddy boots.

“The Future-Ready Leadership event was centered around the concept of Organizational Transformation and how we, as school leaders, can learn from the successful experiences of other organizations outside of education. It is our goal to learn from our partners’ shared commitment to values and standards to create learning experiences that inspire,” said Dr. Rueter.

SAISD is proud of Dr. Dethloff, Dr. Rueter and our outstanding administrators and educators who are recognized as leaders in numerous public education professional groups throughout the state like FRSLN. Dr. Dethloff also serves on the Higher Education Committee for TASA, and Dr. Rueter serves on TASA’s Texas Leadership Center Board. We are so proud to have hosted the FRSLN leaders from throughout Texas and doing this impactful, forward-thinking work here in San Angelo. 

SAISD extends our appreciation to TASA for creating a wonderful event for San Angelo to host, and to our excellent community partners and supporters; SAISD specifically thanks the SAPAC team and Managing Director Yukio A. Kuniyuki III, Shannon Medical Group and President and CEO Shane Plymell, SAMFA and Director Howard Taylor and Assistant Director Laura Romer Huckaby, Eddie Coulson, Mayor Brenda Gunter, Representative Drew Darby, Matt Lewis, General Ronnie Hawkins, M.L. Leddy’s, Lee Pfluger, the Cactus Hotel team and Nancy Gant, Heritage Park of San Angelo and Candis Hicks, Lisa Curry and Thana Cox, Toni Hunter and Phyllis Cox, Bart and Wendi Neff, SAISD administrators and our outstanding student ambassadors who created an authentic West Texas experience for attendees. To stay up-to-date on San Angelo ISD, please visit the SAISD website at www.saisd.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.