PRESIDENT PROFILE
Texas Association of School Boards
Lee Lentz-Edwards takes the helm at TASB by James Golsan
L
ee Lentz-Edwards, new president of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), has spent her life pursuing excellence. A high school graduate at 17 and a college graduate by age 20, this lifelong educator’s career is defined by passion for what she does, diverse experience within the education community, and through it all, a steady record of achievement. Any veteran educator will tell you it takes grit and drive to thrive in the profession, and Lentz-Edwards had to dig deep for plenty of both during her first year as a classroom teacher. Her rookie year as a teacher was spent in Rio Vista, the sort of small community where teachers, even those without classroom experience, often wear many hats. Lentz-Edwards embraced the challenge. “My first year I taught Typing I, Typing II, Bookkeeping, Business Math and Career Education. I was the Rodeo Club sponsor; I was the UIL Business sponsor … it was definitely trial by fire,” Lentz-Edwards says, and while a trial by fire it may have been, it was nowhere near enough to scare her out of the education field. Her next job would be with Kermit ISD, where she worked for 30 years.
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Texas School Business MARCH / APRIL 2020
“In those 30 years I had a multitude of jobs, including classroom teacher, coach, student council sponsor, assistant principal at the high school, assistant principal at the junior high, principal at both the junior high and the elementary school, curriculum director, and my last job was special education director. In a small school, you do what they ask you to do!” she says, adding that she always had an eye open for opportunities to advance in her profession. With her eyes always open for new challenges and opportunities, Lentz-Edwards decided she wanted to make a change after her youngest child graduated from high school in 2004. Leaning into the special education experience that bookended her classroom career (she taught special education students during her year at Rio Vista, though she stressed that was before schools were required by law to teach special education), she took a position at the Region 18 ESC, where she has worked for the last 15 years to effect positive change for and assist educators throughout the state, currently through the Legal Framework project, which helps educators and education leaders navigate laws that protect special education students.