Frisco's Population Boom: What's Really Happening?

A comment from the Frisco ISD school board president "this is our meeting, not the
community's” got a standing ovation for the woman who called him out on it. A statewide paper ran the clip. Strangers told her to run for school board. She looked for someone else to do it, couldn't find anyone, and ran herself in 2022.

In this episode of The Building Texas Show, host Justin McKenzie talks with Stephanie Elad, a corporate HR executive turned two-term Frisco ISD trustee, about what changes once you're the one making the calls instead of commenting on them. She walks through how she brought a confidential, third-party engagement survey into the district to get honest feedback from teachers and cut turnover, and how years of HR work shape the harder conversations trustees have to have with staff and parents. She and Justin also get into career and technical education: plumbing and HVAC apprenticeships that can pay $60,000 to $70,000 a year straight out of high school, and why Elad thinks the trades matter more, not less, as AI reshapes other jobs. Near the end, she talks about a problem Frisco ISD hasn't dealt with before — the district is landlocked and built out, and after two decades of growth, enrollment is now going down.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
How a comment at a 2021 board meeting turned into a statewide story and, eventually, a school board campaign
Why Elad pushed for a confidential, third-party teacher engagement survey and what it changed about turnover
Why plumbing, HVAC, and e-gaming programs are pulling in more CTE
  partnerships than ever
How Frisco ISD is planning around declining enrollment after 20-plus
  years of growth
What Elad tells parents who call her before they've called the district

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Cold open: the comment that sparked it all
00:18 – Welcome to The Building Texas Show
00:40 – Moving to Frisco and choosing Frisco ISD
01:38 – The viral school board meeting that started it all
03:58 – Running as an HR exec, not a politician
04:28 – Winning re-election as the underdog
06:29 – Why teachers leave the profession
07:36 – What an HR leader brings to a school board
08:36 – Corporate partnerships and CTE programs
09:31 – Plumbing, HVAC, and apprenticeships that pay $60-70K
10:22 – P-TECH, community colleges, and workforce pipelines
11:52 – Preparing kids for jobs that don't exist yet
12:58 – A trustee's summer: strategic planning season
13:56 – How Frisco families engage with the school board
16:46 – Why voting in school board elections matters
17:56 – How to follow your local school board
18:26 – What's next for Stephanie Elad
20:50 – Frisco ISD's new reality: declining enrollment
21:54 – Building the future of Texas, one district at a time

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Stephanie Elad is a two-term Frisco ISD trustee, elected in 2022 and
re-elected in 2025, serving through 2028. She spent her career in corporate HR at Fortune 100 companies before running for the board on a platform of teacher retention and community engagement. She and her family have lived in Frisco for 13 years. 

Subscribe for more conversations with the people building Texas communities.

#FriscoISD #BuildingTexas #SchoolBoard #TexasEducation #StephanieElad