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End of an era: Laura Ellison steps down
By Elizabeth Knighten, eknighten@starlocalnews.com
The Frisco ISD Board of Trustees approved the resignation of FISD board secretary Laura Ellison as she stepped down from her position during the March 5 school board meeting.
Ellison, who has been on the school board for 14 years, decided to step down when her husband was offered a job in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Ellison said she and her family have lived in Frisco for 17 years, when there were 8,000 people living in the city.
Ellison, who began her journey in Frisco with the Acker Elementary (which is now the home to the KEYS Program) PTA and served as the vice president and eventually president, said she and the other local PTA presidents would attend the school board meetings.
"We would go to dinner first and go to the board meetings, and just listening at the board meetings I would get so passionate about things they were talking about," Ellison said, "but you can't talk at board meetings you have to just listen."
Ellison said she would come home and tell her husband what she heard at the meetings and when the opportunity arose to run for the FISD Board of Trustees, her husband told her to "go for it."
"I ran kind of not really knowing what I was getting into other than I would be doing what I love, being involved with education and kids and the it's just been an amazing adventure ever since," Ellison said.
Before moving to the city, Ellison served as a special education teacher, but by the time she and her family moved to Frisco she said she decided to be a stay-at-home mom.
"The reason why I stopped teaching was because I couldn't stand taking my two young ones to day care anymore," Ellison said.
In the back of her mind, Ellison had continued thinking about a child care center in Frisco for education employees due the amount of growth she saw while living in the district and knowing how many new teachers would be have to be employed to meet the demand of the incoming students.
Ellison said FISD Superintendent Rick Reedy allowed her to look into a child care facility for district employees.
The program began about 10 years ago Reedy said, in 2002.
"Initially we started it at Acker Elementary -- the classrooms of Acker Elementary, but our neighbor there ... started discussions with us about perhaps buying his building from him."
The school district purchased the building and moved the current child development center into the existing facility, which Reedy said "was already constructed for the purpose of child care."
Ellison said since the program began, "it seems like it's been a phenomenal success."
The school district held a ceremony on March 19 and renamed the FISD Child Development Center the 'Laura Ellison Child Development Center.'
Reedy said when the board was informed of Ellison's leaving they wanted to rename the child development center after her.
Reedy said he has been "blessed with great board members" and to have the ability to work with Ellison for 14 years.
"She will be so missed by the administration, by the faculties, by her fellow board members," Reedy said. "She's just made a monumental mark on this community and the school district, and we'll try to muddle on without her, but it certainly won't be the same. She is just an enormously gifted person and with a heart and soul just unmatched."
The district will hold a special election along with its general election on May 12 for the unexpired, one-year term for the Board of Trustees Place 1 seat. Former board member, Brenda Polk is running unopposed for the seat, which ended its filing date on March 12.
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