Representatives of Frisco’s City Council joined the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees in a special meeting Thursday night at the CTE Center. The school district and the city are tightly knitted together and annual meetings are meant to work together to benefit the community.

“The city and the district have a really close partnership,” Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Pickens said. “And we try to get together at least once a year and discuss issues that impact both the city and the school district and talk about way we can work together to benefit the whole community”

Some community members without children in the district may not think there’s a benefit to a strong school system, but Pickens explains how the success of the school district can ensure success for the city.

“The impact of school districts on the economy and how when the economy grows it benefits school districts,” Pickens said. “And high performing school districts like Frisco also help the economy by bringing in businesses and enticing people to move to the area. A Lot of the economic impact can be felt in the housing market with the rising home costs and also in terms of the amount of jobs we create by constructing new school buildings, and things like that.”

The small school model is something Frisco ISD says has a great impact on the city as a whole.

“What we have heard is that people move here because of the model that we have for our high schools,” Pickens said, “which is great for the city because things that are good for the schools attract people to come here and that’s good for the city too because it helps the the city grow.”