Community leaders impact decisions around the community, especially within the school district. Some leaders are elected while other's are placed in the roles by their jobs. Other leaders become leaders through their actions in the community.
Elected in May of 2015 and reelected in 2018, Laura Hill is Southlake's current and first female mayor. Her City of Southlake service stretches back to 2004, when she first took her place on the Southlake City Council. During her time on Council and now as mayor, she has made the Southlake community and Southlake's youth her priorities. Working with present and past Councils, she has helped keep property taxes low, ensure our children's safety in Carroll schools, and create many diverse groups, including the founding of the Mayor Alliance for Unity and Culture in 2018, and S.K.I.L., Southlake Kids Interested in Leadership in 2015.
As a Texas small business co-owner since 1995, she is actively involved in the Southlake business community, as a Southlake Chamber of Commerce member and an Advisory Board Member of Frost Bank. Nationally she has provided leadership on the Board of Directors and former Chair of the National Association of Directory Publishers. “Meet the Mayor” events at local businesses have been hosted to directly connect Mayor Hill to business leaders and residents in an informal setting.
Mayor Hill has actively supported community groups of all types as a featured speaker at cultural events, business gatherings and by hosting community conversations. The popular “Coffee and Conversation” roundtables have been public forums so participants could come together to discuss some of the community’s most challenging and pressing issues. When COVID-19 limited public meetings, Mayor Hill continued the conversations virtually, focusing on supporting families through the pandemic's challenges.
Dr. Ledbetter was elected in 2020 as the new Carroll ISD superintendent following the retirement of Dr. Faltys. Dr. Ledbetter is a graduate of Carroll ISD and previously served as superintendent of Midlothian ISD for 5 years prior. He has also served as superintendent for Graham ISD from 2012-2015, and spent 13 years as a principal for Birdville ISD.
Mrs. Moore’s passion for education extends beyond her school board activities. She is the National Director, Foundation & Corporate Relations for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), where she has been instrumental in securing more than $300 million to support the college and career aspirations of minority students.
Mrs. Moore is also a very active volunteer in Carroll ISD and Southlake. She serves on Carroll Education Foundation Advisory Committee and is an active Board member of the Southlake Association of Gifted and Talented (SAGT), a local parent association that promotes and encourages advanced academics.
She was also a member of the district's Strategic Planning Committee and is active in the PTO, National Charity League, Carroll Medical Academy Boosters and Odyssey of the Mind as a volunteer coach. She been recognized as the Campus Volunteer of the Year – Carroll Elementary (2016) and Eubanks Intermediate (2015). In 2017, she was named Volunteer of the Year by the Southlake Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Carlton has spent the last 17 years working in the wealth management business and is the Texas President for BNY Mellon Wealth Management. Mr. Carlton holds a Bachelor of Science from Texas Christian University and a Masters of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University.
Mr. Carlton is an active member of the CISD community, currently serving as an Advisory Board Member of The Carroll Education Foundation, is a graduate of the CISD CLASS program, a former Co-Subcommittee Leader for the Strategic Planning Committee, a former Co-Chair of the Capital Needs Planning Committee and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Carroll Education Foundation.
Mr. Almand is a retired US Air Force Colonel. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, a Master of Arts from Webster University, and a Master of Sciences from the Air Command and Staff College. He was a 2010 National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Mr. Almand is a graduate of the 2015 CISD CLASS program and an Advisory Board Member of the Carroll Education Foundation. He has served CISD as a substitute teacher, volunteer and district committee member. He was recognized as the 2017 CMS Volunteer of the Year. He is a 2015 graduate of the Southlake Citizens Academy.
Mr. Gilpin previously served on the Carroll ISD Board of Trustees from 2006-2009 and was a member of the Carroll Education Foundation from 2000-2015. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and currently works as a Partner in Ranch Road Development.
Mr. Lannen has spent more than 28 years working in human resources with leadership roles overseeing other functional areas including communications, real estate, facilities management and security. He is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer for Basic Energy Services, an oil field services company headquartered in Ft. Worth, Texas. Prior to joining Basic in August 2015, Mr. Lannen’s professional experience includes executive roles at Dyncorp International, McDermott International, IBM, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and Halliburton Company. Mr. Lannen graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology.
Mr. Lannen is an active member of the CISD community. He currently serves on the Crime Control & Prevention Board (CCPD) for the City of Southlake, which is responsible for School Resource Officers (SRO) Program. He has been a volunteer and supporter of Young Life Ministries for over 30 years and helped start Southlake Young Life in 2016. He has served as the president of his local neighborhood Home Owners Association over the past three years. Mr. Lannen was on the Carroll Education Foundation Board last year. He has two years volunteering on the CISD Advisory committee; two years serving on the CISD Health committee; and 1 year on the CISD Budget & Finance committee. Mr. Lannen is a graduate of the CISD CLASS and a graduate of the City of Southlake’s Citizens Academy. He is very involved in his local church, 121 Community Church where he helps on the church’s outreach team.
Mrs. Mills is the Vice President of Program Development for Neuroscience Education Institute, where she is responsible for writing and winning educational grants to provide Continuing Medical Education to Psychiatrists and Neurologists. In this role, she uses Adult Learning Principles to provide education to improve the lives of patients with mental illness. Mills has worked in Continuing Medical Education for mental health since 1994.
Mrs. Mills is also an active volunteer in our community, being awarded Volunteer of the Year for the City of Southlake in 2013. Mills served on the Board of Directors for the Carroll Education Foundation, was a 2012 Graduate of the CLASS, a member of SAGT, a volunteer for various PTO's, a long-time volunteer for GRACE.
As a trustee, she served on the district's School Health Advisory Committee, the District Advisory Committee, and the Safety Task Force in ashared effort with the City of Southlake.
Matt Bryant joined the Board of Trustees in May 2018. He previously served on the Strategic Planning Committee in 2015 and Co-Chaired the Subcommittee focused on key teacher retention. He also served on the All Pro Dad’s leadership team at Walnut Grove Elementary, and he still enjoys an active role with the Art Docent program at Durham and Eubanks Intermediate.
Bryant owns and operates NET Keller Real Estate, llc and NET NRH Real Estate, LLC. Over the past decade he has specialized in transforming distressed single family homes into productive rental properties. Prior to his real estate career, Bryant was a Vice President of Sales for the U.S. subsidiary of Nova Measuring Instruments, Inc. He also worked as a Process Engineer for Texas Instruments in the Jack Kilby Research Center in Richardson, TX.
Kirran is not an elected leader but she has quite a bit of influence in community information and passing along messages in relation to Southlake schools and sports. In 2018, she started a Facebook group known as PASS or Parent Advocates for Southlake Students. This page is meant to keep every citizen up to date with news pertaining to anything Southlake and it's schools. She gives updates of every school board meeting, every high school sport event especially if the team won or the game was notable, and especially anything that happens in relation to school policy.
While no longer a member of the school board, Dr. Faltys served as Carroll ISD superintendent for 15 years from January 2006 until July of 2020.
While Southlake has quite a few places to play, eat, and a well spaced school district, a few things it does lack is sidewalks in certain places. Because of it's booming hosing market on any free field of land, the city waits to make the builders build the sidewalks rather than create them ahead of time for people to safely walk from place to place. Southlake also has 2 main large parks, and a few small sporting centered parks with small playgrounds, but most of the parks are in neighborhoods, so many people need cars to get around. One barrier to equitable education is the library, which is located in the basement of town hall. Town hall is located in the middle of the Town Square, which has horrible parking since it is essentially a high class mall. This means people often buy books or wait until their children are in school to check out books from the school libraries, rather than support the public library and it's programs. The newest community place is the Marq, which is the community center built in 2018. A yearly family membership is over $500 for 5 people, while the monthly price is over $100. Many people do not use the community center because of the steep prices and opt for smaller sports places or classes, decentralizing the community hub and creating smaller communities within the community based on sports and academic choices.
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