Frisco ISD Trustee Stephanie Elad, a corporate HR executive serving her second term, appeared on The Building Texas Show to address the district's shifting landscape. Once one of North Texas's fastest-growing school districts, Frisco ISD is now landlocked and built out, facing declining enrollment. Elad, reelected in 2025 to a term through 2028, outlined the implications for teachers, families, and taxpayers in the July 9 episode titled "Frisco's Population Boom: What's Really Happening?"
Elad recounted the pivotal moment that prompted her 2022 run for office. At a 2021 board meeting, the board president stated, "this is our meeting, not the community's," which triggered a standing ovation and statewide press coverage. "That just did not sit right with me," Elad said. She used her HR background to bring a confidential employee engagement survey to the district, aiming to improve teacher retention by understanding staff concerns. "Tough conversations have never really been foreign to me because I've just been doing it for so long," she noted.
The conversation also focused on workforce readiness. Elad highlighted a neighbor who owns a plumbing business earning a couple hundred thousand dollars annually 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. The district is building plumbing, electrical, and HVAC apprenticeship pathways alongside existing CTE tracks like medical terminology, legal assistant work, and e-gaming. Host Justin McKenzie connected this to his advisory work with Founding Up and PTECH welding programs in San Antonio, where students graduate with up to 60 college credit hours through community college partnerships.
Elad emphasized preparing students for careers that artificial intelligence cannot replace and urged families to vote in low-turnout school board elections. She also discussed the district's new superintendent, hired roughly a month before taping, expressing renewed optimism about Frisco ISD's future. The episode is available now across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
