About NSPRA
The Superintendents to Watch award recognizes school district leaders who have fewer than five years of experience as a superintendent and who demonstrate dynamic, fast-paced leadership with strong communication at its core.
Dr. Kristin Craft became superintendent of Boerne ISD in January 2024, bringing a communication-centered leadership style grounded in collaboration, transparency, and shared ownership. Her approach is built on the belief that “people support what they help create,” and she has made that philosophy central to how the district listens, plans, and communicates with its community.
“Since her hiring in January 2024, Dr. Craft has worked with our board to implement the most consistent, innovative, and transparent communication practices we have ever experienced.” — Kristi Schmidt, BISD Board President
Building Shared Values Through Community Voice
As part of her first 100 days, Dr. Craft led a refresh of the district’s core values by engaging community members, teachers, students, and staff. The values, now used across district operations, are:
These values guide decision-making and are used to celebrate students and staff who embody them.
“Dr. Craft is a believer in the power of collaboration. Great leaders surround themselves with perspectives that help to both sharpen and challenge their own, and Dr. Craft’s desire to connect with the community, to have the highest-functioning team possible, and to lead by example has drastically shifted the district’s operations and communications.” — Yvette Reyna, Executive Director of Community Engagement, Boerne ISD
Making Communication a Districtwide System
Dr. Craft made communication a strategic priority early in her tenure, initiating a formal communications audit with a goal of increasing transparency, accountability and enhancing trust. Under her leadership, the district began implementing its recommendations in January 2025.
The approach includes:
“Dr. Craft’s communication strategies have made BISD safer, more transparent, and more responsive.” — Kristi Schmidt, BISD Board President
Visible, Two-Way Leadership
Dr. Craft is a highly visible, hands-on superintendent who communicates in person and through multiple channels. The face of Boerne ISD, she leads with confidence, accessibility and a deep understanding of the community. Early in her tenure, she conducted “listen & learn” sessions with hundreds of community members, gathering insights that shaped a three-year district roadmap. Her team is now well into executing the second year of this plan, reflecting her ability to turn community input into actionable strategy.
In recent months, Dr. Craft has made visible connections with students and families. She visited all JumpStart campuses as children prepared for kindergarten, hosted a back-to-school breakfast honoring first responders, rode buses during the first week of school, and visited every campus to help students find classrooms and open car doors. These gestures demonstrate her hands-on approach and commitment to making everyone in the district feel valued and supported.
Dr. Craft also actively engages with the wider community. She serves on the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Committee and the Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Council, participates in local Rotary, and shares district news through weekly emails and a monthly newspaper column. She intentionally involves trustees in initiatives, and together they have presented at Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) trainings and conferences, extending Boerne ISD’s leadership presence statewide.
“Dr. Craft has demonstrated extraordinary leadership, a collaborative spirit, and a deep commitment to the success of our students, educators, and community at large.” — Kimberley Blohm, President and CEO, Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce
Under her leadership, Boerne ISD has strengthened how it listens, communicates and engages its community around shared priorities and future growth.
B.A. - Mississippi State University; MPA - University of Georgia
I believe school PR/communications is what I was born to do! One of the biggest decisions a parent can make is where to send their child to school, and it’s an honor to share with our parents the engaging work that their children are doing under the guidance of world-class teachers and leaders. On any given day, in any given school, there are many stories to be told and I take that charge seriously. As school communicators played a key role in COVID-19 communications, storytelling was more important than ever – not only did I share information with parents about our protocols, but I also made over 80 visits to schools last year and told a variety of stories about how students were thriving with both in-person and distance learning options. I also worked with principals to determine best mitigation practices and helped make those pervasive, because positive action must be the foundation of what we are ultimately communicating. School public relations is incredibly complex and I love that each day brings a new challenge.
My greatest school PR success was completing 11 nationally-innovative school communication audits using a process of research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. I am now in phase two of this project and am attending school council meetings to garner feedback from parents about school-level communication and how I can better support the work of their schools. One of the most significant findings is that as students take more ownership of their learning, they also take more ownership in parent communication. Therefore, next steps are to better prepare parents for this transition and to also determine best practices from exemplar teachers and coaches at the secondary level so we can strike the right balance with parents feeling informed and fostering student independence.
My greatest school PR challenge is overcoming rigidity. Like many PR professionals, I am detail-oriented and a self-described perfectionist. It’s a blessing and a curse to see when something is one pixel off, but the greatest challenge I have faced in my 13 years in this field is to learn to be more flexible. I might have an aversion to Comic Sans or Curlz, but it’s not the end of the world if those are a font favorite elsewhere. What’s more important is the bigger picture – staff and parents feeling well-informed and students growing and learning in positive school cultures. Instead of telling someone their website isn’t formatted properly, I now make a 2-3 minute screencast if I think there’s a quick tutorial I can offer to provide ongoing professional learning. By being much more flexible, I have deepened relationships and become better at supporting the most important job that occurs in our school system: teaching.
My favorite part of my job is the relationships. I often say that there is no substitute for showing up, and that’s why I make so many school visits each year. From getting to hold a gorgeous monarch butterfly to watching a vibrant student musical to seeing 3-D printing in action from engineering students, I have witnessed countless unique opportunities, and these experiences are just a small piece of what our students get to take part in each and every day. If I didn’t take the time to form relationships, I wouldn’t know that what students value is knowing that the photos I take may show up in their yearbooks. I wouldn’t know the myriad of annual activities that teachers do across our schools because I wouldn’t have witnessed them firsthand. I wouldn’t know about the families of our principals or what they believe makes their school unique. All of that is invaluable because at the end of the day and at the end of this career, relationships are what will remain – both professionally and personally.
The communication tool I use the most is Canva! I would be a brand ambassador if they asked! I am not very mathematically-minded and it can be challenging for someone with an eye for good design – but not an eye for rulers and gridlines – to be a graphic designer. However, Canva has made it possible and I am able to create aesthetically-pleasing graphics with short turn-around times. I have trained communication ambassadors at our schools how to use it as well. Right after Canva, the tool I most use is iMovie. I am completely self-taught in videography and using iMovie and Canva together has made me someone who can add “videographer” to their list of expertise.