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McKinney touts community strengths in troubling times
By Andrew Snyder, Staff Writer
The annual State of McKinney luncheon answered the who, what, when and why of the city for attendees, as they had only to look to an adjacent table to see a local community or business leader and to the podium for an answer to their questions. Held at McKinney Fellowship Bible Church, the luncheon saw presentations from City Manager Frank Ragan, Collin County Judge Keith Self, Collin College President Cary Israel, and McKinney Independent School District Superintendent Tom Crowe. The theme: sustainability.
Presenters stressed that sustainability goes beyond being environmentally conscious and is what has allowed McKinney to suffer less from economic decline than other communities. A series of statistics presented by Self attested to the latter claim, showing the city’s unemployment rate of 7.8 percent compared to the national average of 9.8 percent.
Ragan, the first presenter, defined sustainability as the long-term approach to enhancing the community’s ability to endure and flourish. He split the term into three categories: economic, environmental, social.
The speeches were broking up by a series of comic-relief videos that pitted McKinney’s approach against that of an “average” city. McKinney was characterized by a laid-back actor, comfortable in jeans and a pinkish shirt. Other cities took the form of a suit, tie and glasses wearing bureaucrat. The two joisted over differing approaches to city management. Mr. McKinney came out ahead.
As an example of the McKinney approach, Ragan recounted the response to a crisis earlier in the year when it was realized the city was running $5 million short in revenue. Costs were cut to solve the problem, which he said was different than the capital investments other communities would utilize. He said the cuts weren’t easy to make, but that services didn’t diminish as a result and this year’s budget was simplified in the process.
Self next took the podium to promote Collin County. He said that people have been commenting on a rise in out-of-state license plates populating the area, which he called a GTT, Gone to Texas, migration instigated by job availability. Self used a series of slides updated from last year to show “the basics that have not yet changed and will not change in Collin County,” including its young population, high per capita income and rapid growth. Collin is now the sixth most populous county in the state.
Crowe and Israel gave presentations on the state of education in McKinney, with the latter giving particular emphasis to the cost of education at Collin College and the quality of its nursing program.
“There are only 19 colleges or universities out of over 6,000 in the United States, only 19 of them froze or lowered tuition and we lowered tuition,” he said.
Israel said that 70 percent of all students in the state of Texas start at a community college, and that if you don’t feed the pipeline the state and community will be in trouble. Last year he said give locally not to Harvard, a statement he repeated again.
“This year I say don’t give your money to Harvard again, to Stanford, to MIT,” he said. “They are not going to come and be a nurse in our community. You’re not going to meet the needs of the health care community funding those colleges.”
Representing MISD, Crowe touted the strategic plan the district has developed.
“Last year, we announced our plans to embark on a year-long journey to define where education in McKinney is headed,” Crowe said. “We kept our promise, and through the hard work of over 200 parents, teachers, administrators and community members, a course has been set.”
These words were followed by a video that touched on subjects including earlier availability of foreign language studies and the strengthening of a dual-credit program, which sees students earn high school and college credit simultaneously, that already allows students to enter college with enough credits to be sophomores.
Crowe, who will soon be retiring, ended the speech with thanks for the community that allowed him to serve as superintendent. He received special recognition from McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller and a standing ovation.
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