 Place 3 GISD Trustee Linda Griffin vies for another term
Linda Griffin has served as a Garland ISD Board of Trustees member for 20 years and hopes to continue in that capacity.
“Our greatness is our diverse population and that we have the community support of Garland, Rowlett and Sachse,” Griffin said. “When you have support like that you can’t help but be a good district.”
GISD has a visionary and cooperative board and the superintendent, Dr. Ricardo Lopez, along with his leadership team, is outstanding. Griffin also complimented the entire GISD staff who she said is willing to do everything necessary for our students to succeed.
Choice of school and the variety of programs offered also adds to the district’s greatness.
“I am passionate about children. I believe that every parent wants to see their child walk across that stage on graduation day and every student wants to do that,” Griffin said. “We do not have a 100 percent graduation rate yet, but we’re getting closer. We are in the 90s and I want to see that increase.”
Griffin said that 20 years sounds like a long time to serve on the board, but Texas changes academic accountability guidelines every two or three sessions so things change often.
“I stay on the board and stay so involved because every year we are making significant changes to help students be prepared for life,” she said. “To see the Gilbreath Reed Career and Technology Center and all the partners providing real-life experience to our students is . Nothing takes the place of real-life experience. I love seeing the happiness and the engagement of our students.”
Griffin is glad to see that the focus is no longer restricted to college readiness.
“We are now talking about college, career and military readiness. That is something new from the previous legislative session,” Griffin said. “To incorporate all that, we’ve outlined a strategy of how we are going to introduce all these new pathways to children. We have all this going on and I was around when much of it was introduced. I would like to see the success of all the changes.”
Griffin said that pre-school literacy is an important issue that must be addressed.
“Reading is key. Right now, we have half-day preschool and kindergarten because that is what the state will pay for,” she said. “We are advocating this year that we need funding for both for full day. We’ve got to make literacy a priority. Half days are not enough. We need more focus on it and more money.”
Griffin also acknowledges that GISD’s special needs program needs work and said that Lopez has begun aggressive improvements. There are now 36 teachers dedicated to the dyslexic population and the district is evaluating other things that must be done for special needs students.
“I hope to continue to serve the district. What I bring to the table is a passion for students, a demonstrated and proven track record,” Griffin said. “I’m always out and about carrying out my motto, Always Benefiting Children. I am knowledgeable of the educational arena. I try to continually learn and improve. I want to make Garland ISD the envy of all other communities.” |
Bob Duckworth hopes to
serve as Place 3 Trustee
Bob Duckworth, candidate for Place 3 on the Garland ISD Board of Trustees, loves to serve and would like to have the opportunity to do that as a trustee. He retired after a 47-year banking career and was a member of the Lions Club for more than 50 years. The Lions Club supported the National FFA Organization since its beginning and that led to his interest in the district’s agriculture program.
Duckworth was one of the organizers of Hope Clinic, a facility that provides healthcare to underserved residents. He ran Garland’s Main Street Program for five years and is involved in his church. Service to others has always been a part of his life.
Duckworth feels that the district is in relatively good shape.
“We got behind and the bond has helped bring us up to date,” he said. “The Gilbreath Reed Career and Technical Center has been a great addition to the quality of education. It brings students into an environment to learn a skill. We need all kind of workers — painters, plumbers, mechanics, air conditioning technicians, electricians and more.”
He added that the educational system has gotten by for a while by not feeding young people into those programs, but it has to be done now.
“This is great for many of our children who are raised in working families like I was. Many want to finish school and go to work. They need skills.”
He believes that diversity is one of GISD’s most valuable assets. He also credits the teachers for the district’s greatness.
“Being a teacher is a calling,” he said. “They have a love for doing that.”
An area for improvement would be the district’s transparency.
“It’s an important issue,” he said. “I’ve seen some things happen recently that I was a little discouraged about because of how they were presented or because of a lack of information when they were presented. As a trustee, I would like to be more open.”
Duckworth added that currently, to obtain information, one often has to use the Open Records Act. Another of Duckworth’s concerns is the state of GISD’s ag barn. He was discouraged when the barn was removed from the bond program and no money was spent on it.
“The documents said that all 85 GISD facilities would benefit from the bond. The students that use the ag barn got nothing,” he said.
He would like for the district to build a new ag barn and said that GISD owns property that is large enough to build a state-of-the-art facility.
“It hurts my heart for the students that their program didn’t benefit from that bond program,” Duckworth said. “A little work has been done. Netting was installed to keep pigeons out and a couple of areas for the pigs have been added.”
He said that before those changes, students were raising pigs basically outside and had to be out in the weather to take care of them.
“These things have made such a difference that I can’t imagine what a new facility would do,” he said. “It’s hard to compete when you don’t have the same facilities as other schools.”
“We have a great district,” Duckworth said. “We’ve got to start telling everyone what is great about it.” |