Tracy Thurwanger

In 2016, Tracy Thurwanger joined Plano CUSD as a director of teaching and learning, later moving up to associate superintendent. Today, leading the district as its superintendent, she brings a personal sense of stewardship to the community.

Ask Thurwanger what matters most in running the district, and she highlights two priorities—people and learning. All other responsibilities, from communication and resources to facilities and community relationships, support these priorities, and each role contributes to this effort. A bus driver gets children to school, while a teacher helps them learn once they arrive; neither works without the other. Turning that principle into a working structure has been her central focus since she took the helm.

A Foundation Meant to Hold under Pressure

Now in her third year as superintendent, she is focused on establishing a clear foundation of shared practices and expectations before addressing any new pressures in education. Schools must prepare students for changing workplaces and communities, and her approach has been to strengthen that foundation first, emphasizing learning, collaboration, results and professional learning communities or PLCs, rather than shifting focus with every new trend. Changes like artificial intelligence are then integrated into the structures the district is already building.

This foundation took concrete form through the district's Portrait of a Learner project, developed alongside AASA's Public Education Promise Framework, a national model for defining student readiness. Thurwanger brought together 120 Portrait Design Team members, 43 of whom were students, to define what students should carry with them when they leave Plano. The community identified seven durable skills: creativity, critical thinking, cultural responsiveness, effective communication, emotional intelligence, independence, and resilience. These are treated as equally important to academic performance rather than separate from it, with the goal of students leaving Plano equipped to enter the workforce, navigate adult life and take part in their communities.

Practicing Servant Leadership

Thurwanger describes herself as a servant leader and sees the superintendent's role as stewardship of children, district resources and the people responsible for educating students. Families trust the school system with their children and expect it to make sound decisions on their behalf, and she treats that trust as something to protect.

“ Schools must prepare students for changing workplaces and communities. “

Adults need support and guidance if they are to provide the same for children. She pushes leaders to model that support, have difficult conversations, and plan intentionally. Beyond a single school year, she weighs where the district needs to be five years from now. Communicating that timeline clearly, she says, is as much a part of the job as setting it.

Those words carry real influence is a lesson she learned early, one that makes her deliberate about what she says, how she says it, when she says it and who hears it. Listening matters just as much. She wants everyone in the district, regardless of role, to know their contributions matter as she works alongside them.

The history Thurwanger has with the district deepens her commitment to those values. She has lived in Plano since her kids were in early childhood education, and both graduated from the district she now leads. The community that raised her family gives her a personal stake in the decisions she makes on its behalf.

What Plano Carries Forward

To upcoming education leaders, her advice is to engage people fully and trust them with meaningful responsibility. Students, parents, staff, administrators and community leaders each bring expertise a superintendent cannot possess alone. Giving them a genuine place in the process, she believes, changes outcomes for students. For Thurwanger, leadership means setting a clear direction and listening closely to those who help carry it out. It also means giving them a meaningful role in moving the work forward.