Frisco ISD Trustee Stephanie Elad, a corporate HR executive turned two-term school board member, appeared on the July 9, 2026 episode of The Building Texas Show to discuss the district's shifting dynamics. Once one of the fastest-growing districts in North Texas, Frisco ISD is now landlocked and built out, facing declining enrollment. Elad, who was reelected to a term running through 2028, outlined the implications for teachers, families, and taxpayers.
Elad traced her path to the board to a controversial 2021 board meeting. During that meeting, the board president said, "this is our meeting, not the community's." The comment prompted a standing ovation from some attendees and sparked statewide press coverage. Elad recalled, "That just did not sit right with me. I didn't like it." She ran for office the following year, winning a seat on the board.
To improve teacher retention, Elad brought a confidential, third-party employee engagement survey to the district. She framed her HR background as central to her governance approach, noting that tough conversations with staff and parents "have never really been foreign to me because I've just been doing it for so long." The survey aims to identify areas where the district can better support its educators.
Workforce readiness is another priority for Elad. She highlighted the stigma around trade careers and pointed to a neighbor who owns a plumbing business, clears a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and 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 the discussion to his advisory work with the startup Founding Up and to PTECH welding programs in the San Antonio area, where students graduate with as many as 60 college credit hours through community college partnerships. Elad also discussed the district's new superintendent, hired roughly a month before taping, and expressed renewed optimism about Frisco ISD's next chapter.
The episode, titled "Frisco's Population Boom: What's Really Happening?", is available now across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
