South San Antonio ISD board begins five-year priority-setting under Lone Star governance

The South San Antonio Independent School District Board of Managers on Thursday held a workshop focused on adopting a Lone Star governance implementation plan and setting district priorities for the next five years.

The session, led by Lone Star governance coach Ben Mackey and superintendent and district staff, laid out an implementation timeline and three required student-outcome goals under Texas law: third-grade reading, third-grade math and college, career and military readiness (CCMR). Board members discussed target measures, monitoring approaches and recommended constraints intended to protect district values while preserving superintendent discretion.

Ben Mackey, the Lone Star governance coach, told the board the priority-setting process is “arguably the most important job of a board,” and described the three-step Lone Star framework as: set priorities, align systems to those priorities and monitor progress. He said the implementation plan will be posted to the district website and brought back as a board item for formal adoption.

The district academic team recommended specific five-year targets. In classroom terms, staff recommended the board adopt a domain-1 index target (an index derived…