Education
BY KAREN CHANEY
Q&A: Bill Lee, executive director of LISD Education Foundation Although Bill Lee started his job as the executive director of Lewisville ISD Education Foundation in August, he is no stranger to the nonpro t organization or to LISD. LEF’s purpose is to support the students and teachers in LISD schools. Lee has been a longtime LISD parent with all four of his sons attending LISD schools and graduating from Marcus High School. He served in various positions with LEF, the last one being the vice president of communications. In addition, Lee previously served as the LISD director of marketing. Lee spoke with Community Impact about LEF’s purpose in the district and how he plans to use his skill set in this role. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Because of that, I got the director of marketing position, which is the position I really wanted. It required a degree, and that led me right into the executive director of LEF position, which also requires a degree. How does LEF bene t LISD? We have broken the nonpro t’s e orts into four categories: senior scholarships, teacher grants, campus grants and sta fellowships. We usually award 400 scholarships a year ranging from $500 to $10,000 each. We normally do about $300,000 a year in scholarships. We had 1,000 applications last year. Teacher grants provide funding for many things, including innovative curriculum. LEF awards over $100,000 in teacher grants every year. Campus grants are issued to principals and assistant principals and are basically project oriented to improve curriculum, campuswide involvement or achievements. Sta fellowships are given for sta to continue their education. We o er fellowships up to $1,000 for that.
When and why was LEF formed? LEF was established as a public, nonpro t corporation in 1990. The rst executive director was Janet Luttrell. Our mission statement is to enrich the quality of public education in the 13 communities served by LISD by being a vehicle for securing private funding bene ting LISD teachers and students.
When do you feel successful as it pertains to LEF? I’ve heard a lot of our volunteers and sta say that the best days of their entire involvement with LEF are seeing those teachers’ faces when we go to the schools in big groups waving pom poms and blowing whistles to give the checks. There are tears, the kids are screaming—it gives you goosebumps. At the [big] event in May, when we give the scholarships, the house is packed. I say those too, but to me, in addition to that, success is signing the deals on the dotted line with our contributors ... that will be long-term nancial support for LEF. They are our life blood, they are the fuel that makes our engine go. What is one of your nine-month goals? In nine months, I want to bring in some creative themed-based marketing programs to expose people to LEF. I want to use the experience I have from owning media companies and as the director of marketing with LISD to create a big video archive of scholarship recipients’ interviews showing where they are now and interviews with our teachers showing what they did with their grants.
How did you become the executive director of LEF?
Not only do I have passions for LEF and LISD, I have experience with both. I was on the board of LEF for eight years, and I’ve been on sta at LISD now for seven years. I was in the corporate world for over 30 years, mainly in the telecom industry, I didn’t have a college degree and was very successful. I was retired when our former superintendent, Kevin Rogers, asked me if I’d be interested in working in the school district, so I did. I had already decided that I really wanted to go back and get my degree. So in my 60s, I went back to school in 2016 and got my bachelor’s in organizational leadership.
Bill Lee started his job as the executive director of the Lewisville ISD Education Foundation in August.
COURTESY LEWISVILLE ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION
LEWISVILLE 2416 S Stemmons Fwy (214) 488-0888
WESTLAKE 2341 Highway 377 (817) 490-9072
DENTON 2315 Colorado Blvd (940) 243-2929
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