The first of nine Frisco ISD Coffee Talks with Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Lyon, district leaders and community members took place Tuesday morning in the library over breakfast and refreshments. The informal meetings are designed to facilitate communication between administrators and parents.

“The real world we live in is unbelievable in regards to misinformation,” Lyon said. “You can just sling anything out there these days; you can throw it up on social media, you can tweet, you can do this, [and] you can do that. It’s almost like the truth doesn’t matter anymore, which is really disturbing. Where is our critical thinking ability? So, you have to fight the fight, [and] you have to look for ways where you can actually engage in conversations with people that are based on facts. You can have opinions, but let’s do a reality check in regards to what actually is, and so these Coffee Talks are good way to do that. It’s a good way to have a conversation where we’re not yelling at one another, we’re not trading emails or tweets or text messages that no one really knows how to interpret them and they’re being interpreted incorrectly. We can have a conversation, and I think we need more conversations in our society.”

For the parents in attendance, Tuesday’s Coffee Talk was an opportunity to gain insight into how the district operates.

“It was very open, and they let people ask questions,” Staley Middle School parent Melissa Tomlinson said. “A lot of it was talking about budgetary stuff, which wasn’t the reason why I was here, but it was informational, [and] I’m glad I learned what I did. There was a lot that I didn’t know about before. A lot of [the meeting] was regarding budgetary, the businesses, how taxes are allocated, the TRE, and then voting.”

As the fastest growing school district in Texas, Frisco ISD leaders are trying to make themselves accessible on a regular basis which is something that usually isn’t seen in other big districts.

“I’ve been to several and every time I come I find new information,” Purefoy Elementary School parent Melanie Jones said. “I like the fact that there’s not this giant chasm between the community and parents and the superintendent. He’s very open, honest, laid back, open to answer any question, and that’s a nice thing because that’s not something all other districts do. I moved here from California, so for me this never happened in California and I can tell you people that I’ve met in other districts like Plano, for example, they don’t do this. They don’t have this kind of access so that people making decisions can communicate with the community.”

The next Coffee Talk takes place at Independence High School on October 11 from 8-9 a.m.