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Richards pledges to bring unique set of experience to school board
By Kim Nguyen, knguyen@acnpapers.com
Tammy Richards said she has a unique combination of skills that will help give her a leading edge as a candidate for the Place 1 seat on the Plano ISD board of trustees.
“As a high-tech business person, I have an outsider’s view, but I also have a great depth of inside knowledge of the district from my many years of volunteer work with the schools,” she said. “I strongly believe that education is the key to increased opportunities for all kids.”
Richards, a graduate of Leadership Texas and Leadership Dallas, said she has a broad understanding of issues that affect the region.
“I want to help keep Plano ISD innovative and on the leading edge as the population continues to grow and diversity increases in our schools,” she said. “I would like to apply the right resources at the right time to ensure all of our students succeed.”
After graduation from Texas A&M University, Richards joined Texas Instruments, where she held a variety of executive positions, including vice president of marketing and customer service for TI’s Educational Technology business. In that role she managed teacher professional development and relationships with leading national educator associations, such as the National Council Teachers of Mathematics and the National Science Teachers Association.
Richards is currently the associate dean of the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University, a position she has held since 2003. She said her knowledge and understanding of the math and science has helped her find ways to volunteer in the Plano ISD community.
She served as the ad hoc head of the math curriculum committee at Huffman Elementary, which addressed the growing need of a strengthened math curriculum for deeper understanding of the coursework. The committee worked closely with the Texas Education Agency and state board of education to evaluate the curriculum.
“We were concerned about the math curriculum at Huffman and whether the students would be prepared for middle school and high school,” Richards said. “We worked with the superintendent of curriculum in elementary schools and the changes we made in the curriculum were made shortly after our meetings.”
With much experience with schools from both sides of the fence, Richards said she would like to be a part of the board that helps prepare the district as it goes into the future.
“The experiences I’ve gained give me a unique and powerful perspective that could help replace the more than 40 years of experience that is leaving the board,” she said. “I will be a strong and reasonable voice on the board.”
Richards has lived in Plano for 22 years and has a daughter at Shepton High School and a son at Renner Middle School.
She also serves as the president of the board of Head Start of Greater Dallas, which serves more than 4,000 3- and 4-year-old students from low socioeconomic families. Though her children no longer attend Huffman, Richards remains a staunch supporter of the school, where she was on the site-based improvement committee (SBIC) for three years.
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