GET TO KNOW TASA’S MEMBER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES

One of the many TASA member benefits is access to member service representatives. These former school leaders serve as an extension of the TASA staff, dedicating their time to support individual TASA members in their respective regions.

The roles of a TASA member service representative are many, from welcoming new administrators to supporting those who’ve been in their positions for an extended period of time and find themselves in need of a mentor.

In each issue of INSIGHT, you can learn all about TASA’s member service representatives, the work they do and how they came to serve. For contact information for all five member service representatives at tasanet.org/about/ tasa-staff.

We continue our series with Lloyd Treadwell, a long-time TASA member service representative who recently retired from the position.

Lloyd Treadwell was 27 credit hours away from a degree in accounting when he realized the last thing he wanted was a desk job. He wanted to work with people; he wanted to work with children. He changed gears, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 with bachelor’s degrees in science and education.

A native Texan, Treadwell began his career in Austin ISD and was game to take any position where he was needed. He served as an attendance investigator, a teacher, a coach and the district’s first transportation director before moving into administration Lloyd Treadwell

and working as an assistant principal and principal. He landed his first superintendent’s position in Salado ISD in 1978. From there, Treadwell’s career took him on a tour of the state, as he held the superintendency in Commerce ISD and Mansfield ISD before being asked to help create a new school district in the small town of Wimberley, outside of Austin. He helped build the district and served as its first superintendent before moving on to lead Huntington ISD for a few years and then relocating to Springtown ISD, a bedroom community of Fort Worth, where he worked as superintendent for 10 years before retiring in 2001.

Treadwell’s retirement didn’t spell the end of his career in Texas schools, however. Since 2001, he has served as interim superintendent 10 times, even stepping in as permanent superintendent in DeSoto ISD for four years when the district needed help balancing its budget.

Also in 2001, Treadwell began working part-time for TASA as member service representative for regions 11-14. While some of his interim assignments briefly pulled him away from his work for TASA, Treadwell spent the better part of 20 years working as a member service representative, serving from 2001-07 and again from 2012-20. While he has retired from his TASA duties, Treadwell says he’s still available to districts, if any of them should need an interim superintendent. As a member service representative, Treadwell served superintendents in his regions by offering them his expert insight, informing them of available professional development and even lending an ear in times of need.

“A member service representative is a consultant and can even be a counselor,” Treadwell says. “We try to be available to our superintendents and assist them in any way that they need — even when they don’t know what they need.” To Treadwell, working with other superintendents has allowed him to connect with others who feel as passionate about helping Texas’ schoolchildren as he does. He says that more than anything, he’s enjoyed being able to visit and have personal contact with so many administrators.

“You can go to any school district in the state and you will find good people who are interested in helping kids be all they can be,” he says. “How can you beat working with a bunch of people like that?” Between the four regions Treadwell represented as a TASA member service representative, he served more than 300 superintendents. He says TASA staff was essential in helping him support such a large group to the best of his abilities. “I have appreciated the leadership and the staff at TASA,” Treadwell says. “Johnny Veselka and Kevin Brown have always been very supportive, and I appreciate them.”

“He is a public education champion who exudes class, grace, professionalism, and goodness. Our family at TASA will miss him immensely but we know that he deserves a great retirement.”

The 2020-21 school year is already shaping up to be a challenging one for superintendents. With a career in education that spans more than 50 years, Treadwell has a timeless piece of advice for his colleagues: “Hang in there. This too shall pass.”

“Keep a positive attitude, stay flexible and be creative,” he says. “COVID-19 is going to make us build a new school system, but I think our people are creative enough and bright enough to meet that challenge.”

Texas public education is near and dear to Treadwell’s heart, and he says he finds it distressing to see people who don’t care if public schools make it or not. He has observed public schools struggling with limited resources, strained funding and competition from charter schools, but he believes there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and getting there starts with advocacy.

“Some of the things that the Legislature, VoteTexas and education organizations are doing are encouraging,” he says. “It’s been some stressful times, but if we can elect enough legislators who care about Texas public schools, I think we can turn it around.” n