Frisco ISD is facing a new reality: after years of explosive growth, the district is now landlocked and built out, with declining enrollment. In the July 9, 2026 episode of The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, two-term Frisco ISD Trustee Stephanie Elad discusses what this inflection point means for teachers, families, and taxpayers.
Elad, a corporate HR executive reelected last year to a term through 2028, recounts the moment that triggered her run for office. During an April 2021 board meeting, the board president said, "this is our meeting, not the community's." Elad recalls, "That just did not sit right with me. I didn't like it. And so I was sitting waiting for my turn to talk, and I realized that what I really wanted to talk about at that point was what he had just said." The comment drew a standing ovation, statewide press coverage, and led to her 2022 campaign.
Elad brings her HR background to the board, including bringing a confidential third-party employee engagement survey into the district to improve teacher retention. She notes 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 episode also explores workforce readiness and the stigma around trade careers. Elad points to a neighbor who owns a plumbing business, clears a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and cannot find apprentice plumbers. She argues 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.
McKenzie connects this to his advisory work with Founding Up and PTECH welding programs in San Antonio, where students graduate with as many as 60 college credit hours through community college partnerships. Elad also discusses preparing students for careers that AI cannot replace and pushing families to actually vote in low-turnout school board elections.
Elad shares her renewed optimism about Frisco ISD's next chapter under the new superintendent, hired roughly a month before the interview. The episode is available now on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and wherever podcasts are heard.
