32 grant awardees selected for innovative advocacy program to educate, engage, and advocate at state capitol
Raise Your Hand Texas announced Arp ISD will join 31 additional Texas public school districts to compose the inaugural cohort of the Community Leaders Fellowship. The 18-month program is designed to equip local teams — composed of parents, educators, business leaders, and school trustees — with the tools and skills necessary to find, use and amplify their voices in state education policy.
Hundreds of school districts from all regions of the state applied, and Raise Your Hand Texas leadership selected 32 school districts, including Arp, through the application and interview process.
“Arp ISD sees the Raise Your Hand Texas Community Leaders Fellowship as an exceptional opportunity to deeply and meaningfully engage with our local community and with state leaders to elevate and advocate for public schools, our students, and our teachers,” said Arp ISD Superintendent Shannon Arrington.
The program builds on the foundation of the Trustee Advocates Program, which launched in 2022. While the previous program focused on teams composed of school board members and superintendents, the Fellowship uses a unique collaborative model. Each team consists of seven to 10 participants, including at least three community members who are not school board trustees or district employees. This year's Fellowship participants are comprised of school districts that have between 500 and 50,000 enrolled students, each with its own unique needs and concerns. Together, they all want to do more for their students and communities.
Arp ISD's advocacy fellowship team is made up of the following seven individuals:
School district | Stephanie Schminkey | Arp ISD Assistant Superintendent |
Board of trustees | Donna Lowery | Long time educator |
Parent | Lauren Smart | |
Faith leader | Jake Herrington | Arp Emmanuel Baptist Church Minister of Youth and Education |
Business leader | Terry Lowry | City of Arp Mayor |
City leader | Chris Johnson | City of Arp Councilman |
School district | Shannon Arrington | Arp ISD Superintendent |
“The Community Leaders Fellowship empowers Texans to become stronger public education leaders in their hometowns, directly shaping the future of their local school districts by engaging state lawmakers,” said Dr. Libby Cohen, executive director for Raise Your Hand Texas. “Public schools impact their entire communities. That means the work of advocating for public education in the Texas Capitol belongs to entire communities, as well. We’re excited these advocacy teams are stepping up to the challenge of bringing more hands to this important work.”
Arrington explains that this opportunity comes at a crucial time in Texas public education, “Arp ISD joins the Raise Your Hand Texas Community Leaders Fellowship at a time when elevating local voices and engaging our community is more important than ever. The Community Leaders Fellowship is a unique opportunity for our school district leaders and community to raise our voices on policies and legislation impacting our schools, our students, and our teachers.”
Along with Arp ISD, the following school districts have been selected as grant awardees for Cohort 1 of the Raise Your Hand Texas Community Leaders Fellowship:
Wylie ISD (Taylor County)
The Community Leaders Fellowship is issue-based and non-partisan. Through a mix of in-person, virtual, and self-paced sessions, funded by their grant awards, these teams will develop a deep understanding of the legislative process and master the skills of community engagement and sustainable advocacy.
“Our goal is to build more and deeper relationships between local leaders and their communities, so that they can work together to identify what’s important to them with respect to public education,” said Amy Dodson, dean of advocacy for Raise Your Hand Texas. “This new model creates powerful local teams that can advocate for meaningful change for their students and teachers. We are especially proud to see a few alumni of our Trustee Advocates Program leading the charge in this deeper, community-based work.”
For more information about the program, visit https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/advancing-public-education/advocacy-fellowship/.
About Raise Your Hand Texas
In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of Texas business and community leaders founded Raise Your Hand Texas with the belief that all Texas children should have equal access to high-quality education. Raise Your Hand Texas is working to create a vibrant civic culture where Texans vote, engage lawmakers and their neighbors, and act together to champion public education in their communities and at the state Capitol. For more information, visit raiseyourhandtexas.org.