Abilene ISD -

Abilene ISD will join 28 additional Texas public school districts to compose the inaugural cohort of Raise Your Hand Texas’ Community Leaders Fellowship The Fellowship is an 18-month program designed to equip local teams — composed of parents, educators, business leaders, and school trustees — with the tools and skills necessary to find, use and amplify their voices in state education policy.

“Being selected for the inaugural Community Leaders Fellowship is an honor for Abilene ISD,” Dr. Kuhn said. “This work strengthens our ability to elevate voices from Abilene and our surrounding communities and advocate for the students, educators, and public schools that are essential to our future.”

School districts from all regions of the state applied, and Raise Your Hand Texas leadership selected 29 school districts through the application and interview process. The first cohort of school districts includes:

●  Abilene ISD

●  Alamo Heights ISD

●  Arp ISD

●  Belton ISD

●  Canutillo ISD

●  Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD

●  Cedar Hill ISD

●  Cleburne ISD

●  Comanche ISD

●  Corpus Christi ISD

●  Eanes ISD

●  Early ISD

●  Granbury ISD

●  Gregory-Portland ISD

●  Harlingen CISD

●  Lake Dallas ISD

●  Lewisville ISD

●  Liberty Hill ISD

●  Lyford CISD

●  Martin’s Mill ISD

●  North Lamar ISD

●  Paris ISD

●  Plano ISD

●  Port Aransas ISD

●  San Marcos CISD

●  Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD

●  Shiner ISD

●  Splendora ISD

●  Wylie ISD (Taylor County)

“The Community Leaders Fellowship empowers Texans to become stronger public education leaders in their hometowns, directly shaping the future of their local school districts by engaging state lawmakers,” said Dr. Libby Cohen, executive director for Raise Your Hand Texas. “Public schools impact their entire communities. That means the work of advocating for public education in the Texas Capitol belongs to entire communities, as well. We’re excited these advocacy teams are stepping up to the challenge of bringing more hands to this important work.”

The program builds on the foundation of the Trustee Advocates Program, which launched in 2022. While the previous program focused on teams composed of school board members and superintendents, the Fellowship uses a unique collaborative model. Each team consists of seven to 10 participants, including at least three community members who are not school board trustees or district employees. This year's Fellowship participants are comprised of school districts that have between 500 and 50,000 enrolled students, each with its own unique needs and concerns. Together, they all want to do more for their students and communities.