Photo by Lo Kuekmeier
Education is a pathway to economic mobility. Or that’s what Sarah Weinberg, DISD District 2 Trustee’s father used to say. Coming from a family with 12 kids, Weinberg’s father saw education as what lifted him out of poverty, and emphasized the importance of it to his six kids.
“Education was part and parcel to my family growing up,” Weinberg says. Her dad was a first-generation college student and he served in the army for 20 years.
Weinberg studied accounting and business before working in invest management while raising her children.
“After my third child, I stepped back and started volunteering my time in schools,” Weinberg says. “That re-sparked the interest of education that had been sort of dormant.”
Weinberg volunteered in the Pinkston Sr. High School feeder pattern in partnership with a Southern Methodist University program that focused on literacy.
“It’s so important [to know] the basic fundamental foundation of learning literacy and numeracy and I just wanted to know how I could help,” Weinberg says. “I got deeply involved in understanding what the barriers were and how to bridge the resource gaps to improve student outcomes.”
After volunteering in the district and at United to Learn, na education-based nonprofit, and working with Leadership DISD, Weinberg was inspired by policies that the board implemented to improve student outcomes, like investment in early childhood, college readiness and career pathways.
When former District 2 Trustee Dustin Marshall decided not to run again, Weinberg decided to run for his seat. She aims to use her experience as a CPA and CFA to guide her fiscal decisions and utilize a data-driven approach to driving policy for DISD.
The DISD Board of Trustees establishes policy, allocates finances and evaluates school performances for almost 150,000 students, 10,000 teachers and 14,000 staff members. Weinberg serves our neighborhood, including Woodrow Wilson High School and the schools in its feeder pattern.
“There’s a sense of urgency in that every day that ticks by is an opportunity in education to have a great day, to improve an outcome, to make a difference, to move towards some goal,” Weinberg says. “It feels urgent to me and it felt urgent when Dustin wasn’t going to run that we have someone who felt that way.”
