Today we’d like to introduce you to Tommy Richardson.
Hi Tommy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you for taking this time out to interview me, I am humbled and thrilled.
The question is to share my story and to talk about how I got started and how I got to where I am today. That question is tough for me because, while I am grateful to be a school principal today, I still feel that there is a lot more that can and will be accomplished in my life.
My aspirations are to have a large platform to positively impact the most people. To me becoming a Superintendent of Schools would be a position that I can help many people.
At this point in my life I will keep working to get better.
My grandparents taught me that sense of getting better each day. You see my grandparents raised me for the majority of my adolescent life, they instilled in me and my sisters and cousins a work ethic that you don’t see much these days. Even now I know my grandmother who worked two full-time jobs as a nurse would be rolling over in her grave to hear me saying that I feel “overwhelmed” at work. She would be laughing out loud.
I thank my grandparents every chance I get. This is not indictment on my mother who is a wonderful woman and such an amazing grandmother herself. Yet the fact is that my grandparents raised me and most of my cousins/siblings because they had the means to do so for all of us. For that, I am grateful to my mother for not being overly prideful to not accept the help from her mom and dad. Thank you mom.
So it was my grandparents, my families love, fear, and my competitive nature that has brought me this far in life. I was always fearful of not being someone important. It sounds vain when I say it now, but being relevant was something huge for a kid that was being raised in a house where there would be upwards of 13 kids sometimes.
I read often. I hid my love of reading because it would get me bullied even in my own home. I was different. I was weird. I did not realize that this would eventually make me interesting, cool, and authentic one day.
Today I can be called versatile, charismatic, dynamic, a servant leader who combines high energy, enthusiasm, and practical research to connect with people..
I have a strong belief in assisting in some capacity with the betterment of people and I have a deep desire to motivate others.
I used sports as an outlet in my life. During my K-12 school experience I was either kicked out or asked to leave five different schools. The last school that I was asked strongly to leave led me to North Miami Beach Sr. High School a place that literally changed my life. There I met Coach Jeff Bertani, a wonderful coach, friend, and father that taught me how to lead. The administration there also changed my perspective on what principals, assistant principals and teachers should be to as a student. My principal Raymond Fontana was more like a father figure, ever present and willing to take a pie in the face for the sake of school pride.
Mr. Randy Milliken and Mr. Billy Ridore became assistant principals that I aspired to emulate. They, along with Raymond Fontana are who I decided to model my academic leadership after in my career. Light, loving, and filled with laughter.
I think this is a good time to confess that in my heart of heart (competitiveness) I am a football coach. So I am much more like coach Bertani than I like to let on. When the lights turn on I go into beast mode as a coach and former (and I emphasize former) player. Coach Bertani is the most disciplined and organized person that I know. His regimen is infallible and he is so dependable that you can set your clock to it. This rigidity can come off wrong to some but I love coach Bertani and I’m going to be forever grateful of what he has meant for my life.
My athletic background, also includes being a part of the University of North Carolina football team and a mini-camp with the Miami Dolphins.
My education credentials, include a B.A., M.S., and a Ph.D. from St. Thomas University, a college right in the heard of Opa-Locka, now Miami-Gardens which I went to because of my love for my grandparents.
So yes I am a proud principal, but there is so much more I want to do and will do in my life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am grateful for the road travel it has built character and courage within me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
School Principal
I am most proud of being a principal for a school that has become a school letter grade of an A for the first time in the school’s history this past school year. Additionally, I am proud of the fact that within the same year of obtaining an A we became a Silver designated STEM school designating the schools commitment to the Science, Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics. It was the first time for any designation in STEM as well.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is leaving a legacy for my children and to make my soon to be wife proud of me.
