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Comanche ISD’s Rick Howard helps stakeholders shape new vision of Texas public education
 For Comanche ISD Superintendent Rick Howard, timing is everything.
Being in the right place at the right time landed Howard his first shot at the top job, and being a superintendent wasn’t even on Howard’s radar when he entered the workforce in 1978. While attending East Texas State University, Howard had his sights set on becoming a high school sports trainer, not realizing he needed a teaching certificate for the job.
Fortunately, he had built-in mentors: his mother worked at East Texas State. His uncle, Walter Howard, was a former Lake Travis ISD superintendent. Walter’s wife was a teacher.
For seven years, Howard worked as a trainer in Snyder ISD, starting his career at the district’s high school. He then moved to East Elementary School, where he worked as a physical education teacher and a principal before transferring to neighboring Ira ISD in 1990 to serve as a principal there. When Ira ISD’s superintendent left less than a year later, the board asked Howard to take over.
“I got the superintendency before I was fully certified,” he admits.
The state rated Ira ISD “exemplary” for five straight years during Howard’s tenure. He has worked at Comanche ISD, located in Central Texas, since 2000. In 2002, he began serving on the Texas Association of School Administrators’ executive committee, and this past June he stepped up to lead as president.
The newly installed TASA president says there’s an urgency among TASA members to do whatever it takes to reform the state’s public school system.
“If not now, when?” asks Howard. “If not us, who?”
The leading organization for superintendents and administrators, TASA hopes to spark a grassroots initiative to give educators and parents more say in school reform efforts. TASA, founded in 1925, also includes education service center staff, college and university professors and students and others interested in public education.
Leading the 2,100-member organization is a logical next step for Howard, who joined TASA when he became superintendent in tiny Ira ISD, a one-school district in West Texas.
“Being active in TASA has been a non-negotiable for me,” he says.
Like many of his colleagues across the state, Howard says he is concerned about school funding, assessments, and state and federal accountability systems.
“Too many people are discontent,” he says. “A lot of the legislation has created negative unintended consequences.”
In an effort to counter these consequences, Howard and 34 other superintendents took part in an education policy advisory group called the Public Education Visioning Institute, which started meeting regularly in 2006 to discuss a framework for improving Texas schools. Their discussions resulted in “Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas,” a 48-page working document that outlines proposed changes to the current system.
In the report, the superintendents express concern about limited local accountability: “The shift in power in setting education policy from the local community to the state and federal government has resulted in a system where schools feel more accountable to the Legislature than to their students and communities … . All independent school districts were created by a vote of the people who lived in those districts.”
The group calls for fewer sanctions and more support; a bridging of the “digital divide” between curriculum and students’ technological interests; new standards to reflect broader skill-sets; multiple assessment measures; and greater local control.
The superintendents encourage all who care about the future of education to get involved.
“This is a moral imperative for action,” Howard says.
As he goes into his 31st year in education, Howard shows no signs of slowing down, even though his wife, Paula, retired last year from DeLeon ISD. The Dallas native enjoys spending time with his family, which includes two adult children and one granddaughter. His daughter, Katie, followed her father’s footsteps in public education and became a teacher.
Howard says he’s planning to stay in Comanche ISD “as long as they want to keep me around.
“I’d love to think that I could walk away from it and go fishing,” he says, “but I’m not ready for that yet.”
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