This article originally appeared in the fall 2026 issue of TASA INSIGHT. Michelle Rinehart is the superintendent of Alpine ISD, the chair of the TASA Professional Learning Committee, and was a member of the team that developed The Texas Promise.
In rural Texas, we often talk about our schools as the center of our communities. Community members set their calendars around school events. School colors drive wardrobe decisions across town. Our schools help create a collective identity that runs deep. This strong connection between a community and its schools creates an even greater opportunity: to see the work of educating our children as something we all collectively own.
For Texas schools to reach their next level of excellence, we must see student success as a shared community responsibility. Public education works best when we stop thinking of the school district as an organization that serves a community and start thinking of education as work the entire community owns. The Texas Promise offers this vision of public education as both locally led and collectively owned. Bringing that vision to life requires superintendents to lead not only within their organizations, but also as civic leaders who connect the people, institutions, resources, and aspirations of a community around its children.
So, how do we build that shared ownership?
First, treat external relationship-building as core superintendent work. Philanthropic organizations, employers, higher education, nonprofits, and other community institutions can bring resources and opportunities to students that districts could never provide alone. In Alpine, we coordinated philanthropic investments that renovated 60-year-old playgrounds, launched certified nursing preparation pathways, revitalized classrooms with modern furniture, and provided world-class professional learning for our staff. These investments reflect the power of aligning community resources around the needs of children.
These partnerships don’t just happen. Superintendents must deliberately spend time outside the organization to connect the needs of its children with the assets of the broader community.
Second, map community assets beyond the school system. This summer, Alpine ISD launched Bucks at Work, partnering with local employers to provide paid internships for our high school students. By asking what learning opportunities already existed throughout Alpine — not simply what we could provide within our schools — we expanded the boundaries of our educational system and met important needs for our students and local employers.
Finally, invite partners into problems, not just solutions. When our community set out to address its persistent status as a childcare desert, we brought community organizations together to solve the problem — not simply endorse a district-developed solution. The result was the Alpine Child Development Center, which created 70 new licensed childcare spots and is jointly funded by anchor institutions across our community.
The shift is simple but powerful: Replace “Here is what the district needs from you,” with “Here is a challenge facing our children. What could we build together?”
In rural Texas, the local district may operate our schools, but the community owns the promise we make to its children. When we invite our communities to share that ownership, we expand not only the resources available to our students, but our collective sense of responsibility for their future. That is how community partnership becomes more than support for our schools — it becomes a civic responsibility.
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