What do you do when your three children wind up in three different Carroll schools and the PTO juggle becomes a bit overwhelming? For Sheri Mills, the answer was to run for—and ultimately win—a board of trustees position on the Carroll ISD school board in 2014.
A further catalyst came when Southlake's tax ratification election, which would have provided funds to the school district, failed to pass in 2012. That's when the inner activist in Mills came out, and the campaign for her position began.
“It really motivated me when it didn't pass,” Mills says. “It failed because people didn't show up to vote.”
Now that she's part of the board, Mills is committed to working with the school district and her fellow trustees to ensure that Southlake's schools get the support—and funds—they need.
“I love our schools,” she says. It helps, she adds, “that we have the best superintendent in the state.”
She and her husband, Mike, have three Dragons of their own who are not only in different schools, they also have very different interests. Alli, a freshman, plays soccer; Tyler Marie, a seventh-grader, is into cheer; while son M.J. loves football and lacrosse. It's enough to keep this working mom (Mills is vice president of program development for Neuroscience Education Institute) constantly on the go.
Crazy busy or not, Mills wouldn't change a thing—living in a community she loves and successfully juggling work, family, kids' activities and her role on the board of trustees. Says Mills, “I feel really blessed.”