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Strong schools begin with strong leadership.

That belief was on full display Thursday as Elizabethtown Independent Schools brought together its administrative team for a full day of professional learning focused on strengthening leadership capacity, building trust, and creating a shared vision for the future.

Held at the EIS Central Office, the training was facilitated by FranklinCovey consultant Desiree Cocroft and centered on The 4 Essential Roles of Leadership, a framework designed to help leaders build trust, create direction, execute strategy, and develop the potential of those around them.

Elizabethtown Independent Schools is making a bold investment in the future of its students. T.K. Stone Middle School will soon launch Paxton/Patterson College & Career Ready Labs, bringing immersive, hands-on career exploration to seventh and eighth graders and giving them tools to discover their passions long before they walk across a graduation stage.

What started as a class project is now a permanent fixture at one of Elizabethtown's most beloved outdoor spaces.

A group of Elizabethtown High School engineering students has completed the Power Bench — a solar-assisted, pedal-powered charging station — and it is now installed and open for public use at Freeman Lake Park. Visitors who need to charge a phone or tablet can sit at the bench, pedal for a few minutes of light exercise, and power their device, all without leaving the park.

The project has been years in the making, and the story behind it is as impressive as the bench itself.

Everything was new to Diego Sanchez.

New school. New language. New country.

When Diego and his family moved from Mexico to Elizabethtown, he arrived at Elizabethtown High School as a sophomore who didn't speak English, didn't know anyone, and wasn't sure what came next.

"It was really hard," Diego said. "Everything was new. I didn't have any friends. I couldn't talk to them because it was a new language. I didn't know what to do."

He remembers sitting with the uncertainty of it, wanting to learn, wanting to connect, but not yet having the tools.

"When you get here, you are negative and don't want to learn a new language, and you don't have friends or know how to talk to your teachers," he said. "I knew I would like to be an engineer, but I didn't know who to talk to or how to get started."