Yesterday our Leadership Montgomery County class attended all day sessions with all levels of governmental leadership.  Very interesting and informative.

The day began with award the award winning professor from Lone Star College, Dr. Carolyn Davis.  She spoke on the importance of education on our society and that basically all of the other elements such as economic, ecological and political systems are nothing without solid education.  As a former educator myself, I couldn't agree more.  Our country must wake up to the importance of solid education at the lower grade school levels and up.  Dr. Davis gave a statistic that most kids that are going to drop out, have been affected negatively by the educational system by the 3^rd grade!  Either they were bored, not engaged or didn't feel  accepted.  This is very sad and a reason we need to pay and hire the very best teachers.  She also spoke of the need to increase the hours our kids go to school as the other parts of the world who are surpassing us in education go to school for much longer days.  Interesting to say the least.

The rest of the day we heard from all of our county commissioners as well as the county judge.  Each one spoke specifically about their precincts, challenges and plans for the future.  Mike Meador, Pct. 1, Craig Doyal, Pct. 2, Ed Chance, Pct. 3, and Ed Reinhart, Pct. 4.  Judge Barb Sadler, our county judge stands over the commissioner's court.  All agreed that Montgomery County is doing well.  Their roles with FEMA and the cleanup efforts after IKE were very important.  These men did a fine job cleaning up Montgomery County after the storm.

State Representatives Rob Eissler, Brandon Creighton and Senator Robert Nichols all addressed the issues affecting Montgomery County at the state level.  Rob Eissler is the chairman of the education committee and shared with us the challenges of the TAKS testing, No Child Left Behind, etc.  He foresees some changes to this system in the near future.

Nelda Blair, the chairman for The Woodlands Township explained how the transition is going for The Woodlands since the election to move to a township.  Everything appears to be going well but they have a lot of work to do concerning the transition and the big question, what will the new tax rate be.  Ms. Blair said that they would be diligently working toward getting to a hard number as quickly as they could.

We finished day hearing from Congressman Kevin Brady's assistant, Sarah Stephens.  She gave us an update from the national level.  It was very interesting hearing from her concerning the new administration getting ready to take over in Washington.  She feels that President Elect Obama will have to deliver on his promises for national health care.  It will be an interesting first 100 days in office.  She predicts a lot of changes.

I enjoyed hearing from all of our county leaders as well as some from the state and national levels.  I believe that as professionals, we must understand how our communities are made up and who the key leaders are.  Keeping informed on the issues will make us more valuable to our clients.

Lake Conroe Real Estate