Correction: Earlier online and print versions of this story incorrectly stated RISD was sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over alleged athletic violations. While Texas Attorney General’s office did indeed open an investigation, a lawsuit was never filed.
It may be a tough climate for Texas public school officials, but Richardson ISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum is still dreaming big.
Photography by Gabriel Cano
She’s known plenty of rancor since first arriving at RISD in 2014. As deputy superintendent, she watched first as Board of Trustees President Karen Clardy, then Superintendent Jeannie Stone, resigned during the peak of debates over library materials and parental rights in 2021 before her permanent promotion in 2022.
But even after a less-than-ideal start to her tenure, Branum is still remarkably warm and enthusiastic as she sits across the table. She makes jokes about the district’s yearly motto, wears friendship bracelets in her executive suite and, somehow, still finds a way to remain hopeful following a difficult summer.
RISD’s 20th superintendent, now 50, was born as an army brat in Wiesbaden, Germany, traveling around the world until landing in Texas in eighth grade. After graduating from Southlake Carroll High School, Branum earned her bachelor’s degree in history from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in education from the University of North Texas.
Most of her early career was spent at Coppell ISD, where she taught history before moving to the district’s technology integration team and eventually leading the design and development of Coppell’s New Technology High School.
Since her promotion to superintendent, Branum says she is proud of the district’s lowered teacher turnover rates, academic strides and transition to a middle school model — a jump both Lake Highlands Learning Community campuses have already made.
Her tenure has seen its fair share of challenges as well. A budget deficit fueled by declining enrollment forced the district to close four schools in 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton investigated the district for alleged violations of the state’s transgender policy earlier this year and education savings accounts have become the law of the land.
So, to find out how she’s staying so optimistic, we caught up with Branum as the school year settles in.
You’ve made “Dream Big” the district’s motto for the school year. What does it mean to you?
‘Dream Big’ really was something that, as we were closing up last year and we were thinking about this upcoming year, I wanted to remind our staff that what we do is fun. We get to impact lives every single day. And so let’s not be limited. And whether it’s budget or all kinds of different challenges from COVID, everyone tends to fall into a little bit of this deficit mindset versus an abundance mindset. And I think dreaming big is not focusing on, “Hey, do we have the money for that? Or are we allowed to do that?” Like no, let’s dream big for what the possibilities could be.
Did you always know you wanted to be an educator?
Yes. One of my favorite pictures of me is in my room, and I have all of my dolls and my stuffed animals lined up, and I’m holding a book, and I’m doing a read-aloud, and I’m teaching my stuffed animals, and I’m even, like, directing their behavior.
Do you miss the classroom?
Every single day, yes. And I really, really miss the principalship. I think the principalship for me was one of my most favorite experiences ever. I look at each of these leadership opportunities as my classroom has just gotten bigger. My classroom is really like our central leaders and our principals. How do I help grow and pour into them in a way that they can then pour into our campuses, so that our teachers can pour into our kids?
You came on following Dr. Stone’s resignation. What was that time like?
That was a challenging time, both personally and professionally. When you’re in this work, you become a family with the people that you work with. You often have board meetings where you’re here till midnight, you have early mornings, there’s weekend events and Friday night events, and you end up really kind of cementing relationships. And so when that’s disrupted for any kind of reason, personally, that’s a change that you’re processing, and then it was a disruptive time in the district. There was a lot of emotions, a lot of polarization around so many different topics. And what I was certain of is, at that moment, I knew that if I could be a small part of just helping the district take one step forward at a time and kind of anchoring us back to, “Y’all, we only have one purpose. We only have one mission. And that’s about our kids.”
The district shuttered four schools two years ago. How difficult was that?
Other than attending a funeral of a staff member or one of our kids, it was probably one of the most difficult things I ever had to do. I also knew it was something we had to do. We have actualized the savings we promised. We yielded over $12 million in efficiencies by right-sizing the number of elementary seats that we have, we were able to sell another over $10 million of excess property.
SB 2, the “Voucher bill,” passed over the summer, although HB 2, which increases school funding, also did. Thoughts?
We have, as a system, worked hard to not focus on that. I can’t control that. A family, in the end, needs to make the best decision for their family, and I honor that. So our focus has shifted to we just want to Be the One. So how are we, as Richardson ISD, going to center ourselves as the one for our community? How are we going to provide the best opportunities, whether that’s through our magnet programs, expanding choice programs, so that if our parents want an innovative option, we have it right here.
I do appreciate Austin and our legislators for making an investment in public schools. I will tell you that it does not go near what it needed to do in order for us to really shore up our budgets.
Parental rights have become an issue recently. How has RISD balanced giving parents a voice and maintaining the system’s integrity?
When you’re the superintendent, it’s not your school district. It is the community’s schools, and they’ve elected seven individuals of a school board to carry out their vision for what they want for their public schools. You’ve been hired to execute that vision, and so I think that that has always helped me and thinking about this isn’t just about what I want or what I think is best alone. I think, really, in the last three to five years, our community has seen our willingness to listen.
RISD was one of the districts that sued the state over the release of TEA A-F Accountability Ratings. With the case’s dismissal and their return, are you happy with the state of accountability?
I believe in accountability. Our taxpayer dollars invest in programs and supports to ensure academic outcomes for our kids. So I do think that there should be an accountability system. What I think is challenging is designing an accountability system that is truly easy to understand for our parents and represents truly what’s happening at a campus. And I don’t think that that’s true right now. I think our current accountability system is as complex as our financial system, and if that’s the case, then I don’t think it’s doing what it intended to do.
District enrollment is down, demographic reports project continued declines and lawmakers have continued to pass legislation you disagree with. How do you remain so optimistic about public education?
I find hope in what is happening in our buildings every single day. For me, that’s where my hope is. You know that in the end, our 36,309 kids as of today, they’re counting on us. They need us to be the very best. They need us to believe that dreams can be possible. And so as long as our kids are dreaming big, then we’re going to continue to dream big, and we’re going to continue to have hope. Because one thing that we know is that public education is resilient, and we continue to put one foot in front of the other, and we face the challenges that are put in front of us, and we continue to do great things for kids, so that gives me hope.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
