History

A Brief History of TREA

Established: November 1992
The first organizational meeting of TREA was conducted in Mt. Pleasant at the Hot Biscuit Restaurant (Holiday Inn) at 6:30pm on November 23, 1992. Dr. L.C. Stout, Superintendent of Prairiland ISD was selected to lead TREA as president.

It was also decided that TREA would apply to the National Rural Education Association (NREA) to be the official state affiliate from Texas.

Charter membership – 39 total charter members

Officers

Dr. L.C. Stout	President	Prairiland ISD
Dr. Richard Hervey	President-Elect	Red Lick ISD
Dr. James Hesson	Treasurer	Roxton ISD
Dr. John Moss	Secretary	East Texas State University-Texarkana
Scott Ferguson	Advisor	Region VIII ESC
George Brown	Advisor	Region VIII ESC

Districts

Saltillo ISD	Roxton ISD	Leary ISD
Winfield ISD	Red Lick ISD	Talco-Bogata CISD
Harts Bluff ISD	Avery ISD	Chapel Hill ISD
McLeod ISD	Hubbard ISD	Prairiland ISD
Fannindel ISD	Hughes Springs ISD	Pewitt CISD
Sulphur Bluff ISD	Yantis ISD	Avinger ISD
Como-Pickton CISD	Cooper ISD	Beckville ISD
Region VIII ESC	East Texas State University-Texarkana	Texas Education Agency

TREA was awarded state affiliate status from NREA in January 1993.

NREA has provided an excellent opportunity for TREA to be involved as an advocate for rural issues on a national level. Since joining, TREA has been active and highly involved in the direction of NREA. This is evidenced, in part, by hosting the 1996 NREA annual conference (San Antonio) and by providing a past president: George Brown, 2000-01 and a future president, Seth Adams 2007-08.

TREA has grown steadily since 1992 and has become a recognized leader and strong advocate for small/rural school issues on a national, state and local level.

This growth has occurred through strong leadership from TREA’s current and past presidents: L.C. Stout, Jim Hesson, Tommy Long, Franklin Wray, Ronnie Stanley, Graham Sweeney, Seth Adams, James Morton, Mark Keahey and Todd Williams (President-Elect).