PISD-School district leaders define priorities while looking ahead

PISD-School district leaders define priorities while looking ahead

Written by Mandy Hobby and Julia Kennedy Jayes Monday, 07 August 2006

Charles Dupre, Interim Superintendent, Pflugerville ISD

Charles Dupre had no idea when he moved from Sugarland to Pflugerville last February that he would soon be the new acting superintendent of Pflugerville Independent School District. Dupre also did not know when he was working as an accountant at a natural gas company in Houston 20 years ago, he would now be working in education. “My boss’s friend at the company was becoming the superintendent at Fort Bend ISD and offered me a job as an internal auditor for the district,” Dupre said. “I had always wanted to work with kids and in education. The superintendent later told me that I had the skills to one day be a superintendent, but all I needed was my masters.” Dupre took the advice and completed his Masters of Education in 2003, all the while preparing for his current role in Pflugerville.

Q. What are the biggest challenges the district faces right now?

A. One challenge is staying the course in light of new accountability standards. There are five or six state and national standards and we are making sure we are meeting all of them. Our main focus is the children. We don’t want to lose sight of preparing kids for life and transitioning for the future.

Q. Based on the short time you have been with the district, why are you qualified to be the interim superintendent?

A. I came from Fort Bend ISD which is three times as large as PISD. I was blessed to be a leader as an associate superintendent and we dealt with all of the same issues that we face here in Pflugerville. Sugarland was a little town that just started growing. FBISD was a good model for me to get my feet wet and move here.

Q. What is your commitment to the district as interim superintendent?

A. My commitment is to serve the needs of the students, teachers and taxpayers by providing the best education for students, the best benefits for teachers and spend taxpayer’s money the most efficient way possible.

Q. How is the district managing the community’s growth and its future growth?

A. We study the demographics all the time, as well as study the growth patterns, new homes and monitor campus growth. In 2007, we will have another bond election to get schools and resources in place.

Education: Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Harding University, Masters of Education from University of Houston, Certified Public Accountant

Family: Wife, Seeju and two sons, Drew, 16 and Devon, 14

Contact Information 594-0000, Email: charles.dupre@pflugervilleisd.net

"My favorite teacher was my high school journalism adviser, Elaine Taylor. I was in trouble all day everyday until I entered ninth grade and she got me involved. She was a great role model and took me in and polished me up."

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Carol Fletcher, PISD Board President

Carol Fletcher was in Washington, DC when we reached her for this interview. She was asked to serve on the National Selection Committee for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. She said she was honored to be there, but it is just one of the many big jobs on her plate.

As president of Pflugerville ISD’s school board, she and her fellow board members have a number of challenging issues in front of them, including addressing the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, preparing the annual budget, and hiring a new superintendent.

“It’s a difficult job, but we have tremendous educators and colleagues who make the job of being on the school board so much easier,” says Fletcher.

Q. When and why did you decide to run for the school board?

A. I’d been a teacher in the district and was in graduate school at the time. My colleagues, friends, and husband encouraged me to run. There were no educators on the board at the time, or anyone with elementary-aged children. My oldest was set to begin kindergarten and my youngest was two. I felt it was important to have representation from someone whose children would be impacted by our decisions for the rest of their school years.

Q. What steps are being taken to search for a new superintendent? When does the

board plan to make a decision?

A. I think the board is interested in getting school started smoothly before we even begin to think about the process of choosing a new superintendent – somewhere more in the September-October range. Right now, we are working on delivering a balanced budget while lowering taxes, providing a teacher pay raise and adding to the fund balance.

Q. What is the biggest challenge the school district is facing?

A. As school districts grow, they tend to turn bureaucratic, which in turn, tends to ignore individual needs. We want to avoid that. We want to maintain individual attention while still addressing the needs of the student population at large.

Q. What are the budget priorities for the Board for the coming year?

A. The board is occupied with the tough job of setting their budget. We have to lower taxes, provide for a teacher pay raise, balance the budget, and find money to add to our general fund balance. Those have been our target goals for a long time now, but last year we had a deficit balance. We have been able to cut that deficit, though. There will be nearly 1,000 new students next year and seven new residential developments with thousands of homes in the next couple of years. All those students will need a place to learn!

Education: Plano High School, Texas A&M Bachelor’s in Curriculum and Instruction, Masters and PhD at UT Austin, both in Science Education.

Employed by: UT Austin, asst. director for science teacher professional development

Family: Married to husband, Clint, since ’89. Two sons, Wiley, 7, and Benjamin, 9.

Contact information: carol.fletcher@pflugervilleisd.net

"My favorite teacher was Mr. New. He taught AP American History. It was a very challenging, thought-provoking class that prepared me for the sort of thinking and reasoning I would need in college. It was fun! He had a very dry sense of humor and the relationship between student and teacher was different than what I’d had prior to my senior year. As a result, it was a great preparation for my college years."