In the six years Eric Eager has been on the Richardson ISD Board of Trustees, the district has embraced the Teacher Incentive Allotment, leaned into student growth measures and added employee benefits that have improved teacher retention. Voters should return him to the board.
RISD’s teacher turnover rate is now lower than the state average for the first time in more than a decade, according to a staff presentation last month. In addition to TIA, which rewards teachers for student performance, the district has expanded its sick leave policy, built day care centers for employees, added an acute care clinic and forged a partnership with the East Texas A&M Mental Wellness Clinic.
In our candidate interview, Eager, 59, said the district’s focus on growth goals rather than raw scores on standardized tests has helped teachers motivate students for improvement whether they’re in the gifted and talented program or trying to catch up.
The district still faces headwinds. Enrollment is down almost 7% since 2019, according to a November staff report. Recently, the board approved cutting 95 staff positions to save $5.7 million, along with about $20 million in programming. That’s a continuation of a recent trend. Last year, the district started “Project RightSize” which saved $12.3 million by consolidating campuses, according to a June 2025 staff report.
More importantly, student test scores need improvement. In 2025, the district received a C rating from the Texas Education Agency. That’s why Eager pushed to make student growth the district’s north star.
Eager’s challenger, Blake Sawyer, is a parent of three whose ages and needs give him insight into a wide swath of district operations. Sawyer, 43, told us his eldest son is a high school student taking advanced courses and looking at challenging college programs. His youngest, in elementary school, is non-verbal and has epilepsy.
“I have daily insight into what we’re doing in the district,” he said.
Sawyer’s campaign highlights declining enrollment and stagnant test scores, but his solutions to those challenges mostly mirror what the board is already doing.
One place he differs is in the district’s embrace of TIA. Sawyer told us he’s reluctant to endorse a system that ties teacher compensation to student performance, instead favoring mechanisms like supervisor evaluations to measure teacher success. From our perspective, TIA has been one of the most transformational reforms to come along in recent years, and a district shouldn’t hope to dramatically improve student achievement without it.
Sawyer is deeply involved in RISD, having served on the budget steering committee, bond steering committee, strategic planning committee, technology advisory committee and other roles. We hope he stays involved and continues to seek office, but don’t see him as a better trustee than Eager at this point.