July 8, 2021

Three FNI Team Members Elected to School Boards

Many public school districts in Texas recently held elections, and three Freese and Nichols team members were elected to board positions in their districts. Their involvement reflects our firm’s LEADS value to Serve Always.

Jessica Brown

Jessica Brown, Water/Wastewater Master Planning, Fort Worth, was recently re-elected to the Aledo ISD Board of Trustees for her second three-year term, this time as Vice President. In 2018, Jessica won her first election against an incumbent board member.

The seven-member board oversees the Aledo Independent School District, which has more than 5,700 students and almost 600 employees in 10 schools located in Parker and Tarrant counties.

Jessica comes from a family of teachers and has two children attending Aledo schools. She enjoys being involved in a variety of district events, applying her extensive engineering background and passion for local community service to her role.

“It’s in our community’s best interest to provide opportunities for students of all kinds,” Jessica says. “Our district is going through lots of changes and growing pains, but the more our board members can work together, the more our students benefit.”

 

Chris Poteet

Chris Poteet, Program Management and Construction Management, Dallas, was recently elected to the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees for his first term. Chris will serve as an At-Large member for three years for the district, which has 40,000 students and 6,000 employees and covers the City of Richardson and portions of Cities of Dallas and Garland.

Chris has two children in Richardson schools, and has been a frequent volunteer for the district during the last few years. He first took interest in taking his involvement in public education further after an in-depth session at Leadership Dallas, a leadership development program offered by the Dallas Regional Chamber.

Chris says, “In the same way FNI upholds ‘Learning Continuously’ as part of our LEADS values, education is a critical piece to success for individuals, the community, region and metroplex. Being a part of that success is something that fires me up.”

 

Shane Torno

Shane Torno, Coastal Infrastructure Design, Corpus Christi, was elected in 2018 to the London ISD Board of Trustees for a four-year term as Secretary. London ISD serves 1,200 students in Nueces County and added its first middle school and high school within the last 10 years.

Shane says, “The district has had a great reputation for high-level academics and is beginning to grow very quickly. It recently started its athletics program, which is a heavy demand on resources, and also has a lot of classroom and facility needs. As an engineer, I can help the board assess and apply resources with a methodical approach.”

Shane has two children in the district, and his oldest son is the current valedictorian for his senior class.