Dr. Thomas Randle, superintendent of Lamar CISD, was a high school freshman in 1967 when Brenham ISD integrated black students into its classrooms. Instead of spending the first week of class taping hand-me-down books and repairing old equipment, Thomas walked into a brand-new school with fancy science equipment and gleaming books. He felt special.

“I remember my mother saying that with a brand new school, I had no excuse but to get a good education. It was all on me,” Thomas recalled. “I had that strange, special feeling when we joined The Holdsworth Center. Once again, I knew that it was on me to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Thomas recently delivered these remarks to more than 40 fellow school district administrators from seven school districts around the state as they graduated from Holdsworth’s inaugural District Leadership program.

The purpose of the District Leadership Program is to give individual leaders the inspiration, tools and resources needed to grow. Leaders then take what they’ve learned and adapt it to their district, creating the cultural environment and systems needed to move other leaders through the pipeline in a thoughtful way.

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