CEO Message: Welcome to Round Rock Dr. Azaiez

Last week, the Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees completed the most foundational, and long lasting, task they are likely to vote on – the selection of a superintendent. They hired Dr. Hafedh Azaiez to serve the students and families of RRISD as superintendent.

On behalf of our investors and the community, I’d like to extend our welcome to Dr. Azaiez. We look forward to working with him to create an even more economically vibrant community with excellent quality of life for our residents.

It should go without saying that we are all invested in his success. Dr. Azaiez will take the helm of an enterprise that serves over 50,000 students, employs over 4,000 teachers and 6,000 staff, and manages a budget exceeding $440 million. He deserves the support of all in the district because his success will be defined by the success of the students and families RRISD serves.

The Round Rock Chamber has long understood the past success of Round Rock – and our future opportunities – are directly tied to having a high-quality education system for residents in the community. Decades ago, business leaders embraced the direct connection between economic growth in Round Rock and having a public education system that families would move into. Strong support of public education made it possible for the workforce of our community to arrive and thrive here. As more people moved to Round Rock, the more businesses had confidence they could either hire employees already in our community, or recruit employees from other states to move into Round Rock.

It’s a positive feedback loop that has benefitted the families of Round Rock, the businesses in the entire region, all taxpayers in Round Rock, and most importantly the students receiving a RRISD public education.

Dr. Azaiez arrives at RRISD at a transitional period for our city and community. Round Rock is experiencing a shift from low density, greenfield development to higher density development. That means more families to serve in the school district, with a diversifying set of needs and concerns. Round Rock is more economically diversified than it has been in the past three decades, with more opportunity on the horizon. Every employer considering coming to the area is seeking a relationship with the school district. Any business considering an investment in Round Rock evaluates the school district as a workforce generator, and an asset for employee recruitment.

In March, at the beginning of the search process, RRISD and the consultants issued a community survey. I encouraged business leaders to participate in this article, wherein I noted that the different leadership qualities in the survey could be combined in over 336 trillion different ways. Put another way, it is very unlikely that anyone would have come up with the same combination traits. Furthermore, in a district as large and diverse as RRISD has become, it is no surprise there are differing views about the leadership traits stakeholders are seeking. Likewise, competition for leaders of vision is high in any profession right now.

So, in a period of so much change and transition, it is no surprise that stakeholder views differ. However, now the process is complete, and the selection is made. Our focus now is to foster an environment wherein all RRISD kids can receive a high quality, intellectually challenging education that prepares them for the rest of their lives, whatever path they may take. The best way to support them, is to support Dr. Azaiez.

Welcome to Round Rock Dr. Azaiez! We are excited to work with you!

#TomorrowTogether

Jason