In the July 9, 2026 episode of The Building Texas Show, host Justin McKenzie spoke with Stephanie Elad, a two-term Frisco ISD trustee and former corporate HR executive, about the district's shifting landscape. After years of explosive growth, Frisco ISD is now landlocked and built out, facing declining enrollment. Elad, reelected last year to a term running through 2028, unpacked what that inflection point means for teachers, families, and taxpayers.
Elad recounted a pivotal 2021 board meeting where the board president said, “this is our meeting, meaning theirs and not the community's.” That comment triggered a standing ovation, statewide press coverage, and her 2022 run for office. “That just did not sit right with me,” she told McKenzie. “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.”
Bringing her HR background to the board, Elad pushed for a confidential, third-party employee engagement survey to improve teacher retention. She also focused on building plumbing, electrical, and HVAC apprenticeship pathways inside Frisco high schools, alongside existing CTE tracks like medical terminology, legal assistant work, and e-gaming. Elad pointed to a neighbor who owns a plumbing business, clears a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, and cannot find apprentice plumbers. She argued 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.
McKenzie connected the thread to his advisory work with the startup Founding Up and to PTECH welding programs in the San Antonio area, where students graduate with as many as 60 college credit hours through community college partnerships. Elad also discussed the district's new superintendent, hired roughly a month before taping, and her renewed optimism about Frisco ISD's next chapter.
The episode, titled "Frisco's Population Boom: What's Really Happening?", is available now wherever podcasts are heard. For more insights from The Building Texas Show, visit their YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages.
