During Monday’s meeting, Frisco ISD board of trustees selected Jenny Preston Educational Consulting to guide the district through a search to replace current Superintendent Jeremy Lyon, who announced his retirement last month. The board will meet with Jenny Preston, who served as the Allen ISD superintendent from 2000-06, next week to establish a timeline. Preston also helped the district with its strategic plan in 2015. During her presentation, she proposed a timeline for naming a lone finalist by late May. However, some trustees indicated that may be too soon, FISD’s Assistant Director of Communications Meghan Cone said. Preston indicated that she could be flexible and modify her suggestions based on the board’s wishes. Once a lone finalist is named, there is a 21-day waiting period in Texas until a new superintendent can begin to work in the district. The board began the superintendent search process on March 27 in a board workshop to discuss using an executive search firm and determining the right candidate for superintendent. Trustees then met April 4 to review applications and the board narrowed their pool to four search firms.

Priorities-based budget recommendations

The board of trustees also received a first look at the proposed budget for the 2017-18 school year that was based on feedback from the community, parents and staff through a stakeholder committee. The committee was formed in September to give the community the opportunity to help FISD through its budget process and align priorities with spending. FISD CFO Kimberly Pickens presented the board with a list of about 60 recommendations from the committee that include reductions in campus budgets, central administration and extracurricular activities. Recommendations include reducing support staff and reducing central administration costs. Recommendations are not final. District leaders will work with trustees between now and June to answer any questions they may have and/or revise the proposed budget based on their feedback. The proposed budget will be presented in May and the board will make a final vote on the budget in June.