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trustees - board visits Austin to meet with legislators
Posted in on March 3, 2023

Trustees meet with representatives and senators

Arlington ISD’s Board of Trustees traveled to Austin last week to advocate on behalf of the district’s students and staff. They met with each of the Texas representatives and senators who represent the district at their offices in the state capitol building.

The trip came as the 88th Texas Legislative Session is starting to pick up. To date, nearly 5,000 bills have been filed, with more than 750 of them related to public education.

Arlington ISD’s trustees, along with superintendent Dr. Marcelo Cavazos and assistant superintendent Dr. Michael Hill, met with the entire local delegation, including Rep. David Cook, Sen. Phil King, Sen. Brian Birdwell, Rep. Chris Turner, Rep. Tony Tinderholt’s chief of staff, Sen. Royce West, Rep. Salman Bhojani and Sen. Kelly Hancock.

The purpose of the meetings was to share the district’s legislative agenda for this session. Discussions with each legislator focused on some of the key issues in public education like school safety, school accountability, STAAR testing and school choice.

“It was just great to meet with them all, hear what they are expecting from this session and get to share some of the issues important to our students, teachers and staff,” said board president Melody Fowler.

The meetings were also about building relationships.

“This is an important time in public education,” Cavazos said. “It is important that we continue to build relationships and work closely with our legislators to best serve our students, staff and parents.”

The Texas Legislature meets every two years to set the state’s budget and consider and implement new legislation. The current legislative session opened on Jan. 10 and is scheduled to run through May 29.