Just two weeks into his new position as Superintendent of Victoria ISD, Dr. Quintin Shepherd and his board needed to make a decision about increasing the tax rate by 11 cents per $100 of property value to pay for repairing damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. “We could increase taxes without a referendum, but I needed to build support from my community,” Dr. Shepherd shares. “I also needed to create some transparency around decisions.” Along with running in-person community forums and broadcasting them online via Facebook Live, Dr. Shepherd ran an exchange to let people confidentially share and rate thoughts on the tax rate increase. “Any of these events alone might have picked up some people, but they would be somewhat disconnected,” he explains. “By running all three at the sa

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