Richardson ISD is a scaled-down big-city school district. With about 36,300 students, it\u2019s diverse ethnically and racially. Half of students come from economically disadvantaged households, and one-third speak a language other than English at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like many local districts, Richardson\u2019s enrollment has declined, and it has been forced to shutter campuses, cut positions and trim programs to address budget shortfalls. The district earned a C rating \u2014 it fell one point short of a B \u2014 in 2024-25.<\/p>\n
Richardson ISD also has significant strengths, including supportive parents and property owners who approved a $1.4 billion bond package last year. And it attracts dedicated education advocates to its school board races.<\/p>\n
Euan Blackman, Nazlee Burney and Luis Fernando Rojas are competing to represent District 3 on the board. Both Blackman, 53, and Burney, 46, have taught and volunteered in the district, but Burney is the better candidate. Her top concerns are increasing state funding for public schools, supporting teachers and closing achievement gaps. She has taught in elementary and high school settings and has a master\u2019s degree in education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Burney said enrollment is shrinking for a variety of reasons. Some, such as lower birth rates and an aging population, are beyond trustees\u2019 control. The sustained increase in homeschooling after the pandemic and the state\u2019s new private school voucher program have added to the competition for students, she said. That\u2019s why she supports a proposed $450,000 marketing campaign, even though she\u2019d rather invest that money in the classroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become necessary to demonstrate to the public why public education, and RISD, is the best choice for their students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Publicizing the district\u2019s strong programs in the fine arts, science and athletics, along with a new career and technical education training center, could encourage parents to try Richardson ISD, she said.<\/p>\n
Burney supports the district\u2019s cellphone ban. She also praised a partnership that has brought a mental health clinic, staffed by Metrocare Services, to the former Thurgood Marshall Elementary, which now serves as an alternative education center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were disappointed that neither Burney nor Blackman seemed enthusiastic about the state\u2019s Teacher Incentive Allotment program during the candidate interview. TIA and similar programs reward skilled teachers partly based on their students\u2019 academic growth. The incentives can help districts retain their highest-performing teachers and keep them in the classroom.<\/p>\n
Burney said that pay-for-performance programs create inequity among teachers and that the best teachers are motivated by their passion for the profession, not money. She said she wants to raise all teachers\u2019 salaries. Blackman also disliked performance-based incentives and said he would prefer automatic, annual $1,000 raises so that teachers\u2019 pay increases consistently over time. Rojas did not complete the candidate questionnaire or participate in the interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richardson ISD is a scaled-down big-city school district. With about 36,300 students, it\u2019s diverse ethnically and racially. Half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-241649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}