Ana Alicia Horn recently started her service on the Mansfield ISD School Board in northern Texas, after completing LCV’s Candidate Academy training with Climate Cabinet Action earlier this year.

Ana decided to pursue the training and run for the School Board because she was tired of seeing the previous board spending all their time on silly things like banning books and bathroom access rules for trans students. As a mother of three students, she wanted to bring sanity back to the district.

“I wanted the board to focus on the actual issues facing students, rather than buzzword national issues. Parents already had control over what materials their students could access. They shouldn’t have the right to control the materials all parents in the district can choose for their kids,” said Ana.

Now that she is on the board and can help set the agenda for the district, Ana is focused on the growing academic gaps for English Language Learners and low-income students. She’s also very proud of the programs of choice in Mansfield ISD; her kids are in a dual immersion program to become bilingual and biliterate in English and Spanish. But there is still work to do to make the district’s choice programs accessible for all families, especially when it comes to transportation for students.

“There are many cities in Mansfield ISD, but for too long, the resources have been focused on the schools within the city of Mansfield, so we need to create more universal access,” said Ana.

Increasing communication with families is also a focus for Ana. The shenanigans of the previous board, and the hasty way it made policy changes, damaged trust with families in the district. “There is a need for more transparency, and for education about what is happening in the district,” Ana explained.

Another priority is teacher retention. Teacher morale is low right now because the state just passed a bill that will likely decrease enrollment and funding in public schools. So keeping salaries competitive is going to be important going forward. “We want to stay one of the top five paying districts in the area,” said Ana.

Ana was an active PTA parent in all three of her kids’ schools before running for the board, so she knew a bit about the district prior to running. Even so, she is still on a steep learning curve especially when it comes to the district’s finances. Her life right now is “budget, budget, budget. I’m best friends with the CFO at this point, and I’m learning a lot about school finance,” said Ana.

The candidate training was most helpful to Ana because it helped her to filter the copious advice she got at every turn about how to invest her campaign dollars. “Every financial decision we made, we asked ourselves, ‘Is this going to get us a vote?’ I was surprised how many times we had to say that to each other. That saved us so much money,” Ana explained, speaking of her experience running on a slate with two other candidates.

She also appreciated seeing real examples of mailers, websites and other campaign materials as part of the training. “I’m very practical, so those concrete examples helped,” said Ana. “We stuck to the plan we started at the training, and that really helped, as well as being in a room with other candidates. Hearing different perspectives about how others were planning their campaigns was helpful,” she added.

In terms of advice for future candidates, Ana says “If you know you are going to run for something someday, get involved now. I joined three high school PTAs, which wasn’t a campaign strategy at the time, but those three PTAs loved me and did a lot of campaigning for me. But it took time for me to build those relationships.”

Our country urgently needs more leaders who share our vision of a world with a healthy environment and healthy communities, protected by a just and equitable democracy. To empower more people in our movement to become leaders, LCV and our state affiliates offer robust leadership development opportunities. Learn more about LCV’s Candidate Academy and other programs.