Thaw to Lead School Board: ; Official Unanimously Elected President, Will Serve a Two-Year Term

Charleston Daily Mail › July 07, 2010

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Summary

Pete Thaw, once a thorn in the Kanawha school boards side, is the bodys new president. Board members unanimously elected him for a two- year term at Tuesdays special session meeting. Thaw, an infamous penny pincher, said his new office wouldnt alter his voting habits on the board. Im still going to serve my constituents, he said. Im not interested in the hierarchy of education. Im interested in getting the action on the ground. But the veteran board member, who never has served as the boards president, said hes happy to take the helm. Ive been on the board for 12 years. Being president hasnt been my burning desire for 12 years, but I am honored to do it and I am very happy to do it, Thaw said. Thaw said some of his critics doubted he would ever become president. They said it would be a cold day in Hell when I would be elected board president, he said Tuesday, when highs reached 97 degrees. They were half-right. Outgoing board president Becky Jordon said she enjoyed her time in the middle seat but thinks it is Thaws time to lead. Pete has become a wonderful team player, Jordon said. I think he will be a really great asset to the board. Thaw, 79, first was elected in 1998 but first appeared on the countys education scene in late 1996 with his citizens group, Workers Against School Tax Excesses, or WASTE. The group opposed the boards proposed sale of $98 million construction and renovation bonds. The borrowed money, which would have been repaid through temporarily higher property taxes, would have paid for renovations and additions at the countys high schools and two vocational centers. The work was needed to bring ninth-graders into the senior high schools. Some of the money, $13 million, was to be set aside for technology improvements in county schools. Thaw and company opposed the bond issue, saying the school system needed to learn how to manage its existing bankroll before asking voters for more money. The bond would have raised property taxes by about 13 cents per $100 of assessed value. For instance, a house assessed at $50,000 would have been taxed an extra $65.45 per year until the bond debt was paid. When the polls closed in November 1997, about 63 percent of Kanawha voters had opposed the bond sale. After we beat the bond issue, I could hardly go home. If youre going to raise hell, youd better have a solution, Thaw said. Echoing his days with WASTE, Thaws school board campaign focused on fiscal responsibility. He questioned out-of-state travel expenses, pay raises and the number of county-level administrators employed by the school system. At the time, Kanawha County had five area assistant superintendents assigned to different sections of the county, an assistant superintendent, an associate superintendent, a deputy superintendent and a county superintendent. Thaw said the school systems central office also housed a public relations official who did nothing. He promised voters he would work to eliminate up to 12 administrative positions and save the county as much as $1.5 million. There were a lot more unnecessary administrators, Thaw said recently. I was adamantly against it, and I broke it up as soon as I got on. Now, one superintendent, a deputy superintendent and four assistant superintendents one for assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, and one each for elementary, middle and high schools run Kanawha County Schools. The public relations position no longer exists. Under pressure from Thaw and fellow board member Betty Jarvis, then-superintendent Jorea Marple and deputy superintendent Jack McClanahan resigned and assistant superintendent Rebecca Goodwin retired in August 1998, about three months after Thaw was elected to the board and a month after he was sworn in. Thaw also objected to the boards frequent use of closed, executive sessions to discuss student or school personnel disciplinary matters. He said it seemed as if the board were going into executive sessions every 10 minutes. After he was elected, it was six years before Thaw started attending executive sessions. Instead, he would stand in the hallway with reporters and the general public while the rest of the board met in private. He said he eventually started attending the sessions to stay up to speed on board matters. Thaw said he has learned that closed sessions are sometimes necessary when dealing with legal or personnel matters, but he noted the school board doesnt use the private sessions nearly as often now. Frankly, theyve quit having so many, he said. Wanda Carney, who worked with Thaw as part of the citizens group, praised him for his honesty and openness. Hes one of the most open board members there is. Hes the most open with the press than any other board member there, she said. Carney said Thaw still holds to the principles he advertised in his 1998 campaign. I think he holds true to fiscal responsibility, she said. At the school board meetings Ive been to, Pete is still very fiscally conservative. Thaw routinely scrutinizes the construction and service bids that come before the board. He also questions teachers and administrators out-of-state travel requests, especially ones that involve multiple personnel on a single trip. True to form Tuesday, Thaw asked Duerring about a $1,752.50 travel request to send a Carver Career and Technical Center teacher to the Pharmacy Technician Educator Councils annual meeting in Savannah, Ga. Thats not too exotic this time of year, Thaw said. Deputy Superintendent Joe Godish said the teacher had to attend the meeting to keep her certification. In November 2008, he and rookie board member Robin Rector voted against a $40,000 pay raise for Duerring. At the time, Thaw said educators might use the superintendents raise to push for more money in their own paychecks. Rector objected to the pay raise because of recent economic hard times and the countys other financial obligations, like the two new West Side elementary schools it hoped to build. Thaw said the Kanawha boards current incarnation is much more fiscally responsible than in the past. In the old days, they couldnt wait to get out and run a bond issue, he said. This is a very good board, and the people were very wise to leave this board in the condition its in. A lifelong politician, Thaw served as mayor of Sistersville from 1958 to 1968. He also worked as Robert Kennedys West Virginia campaign chairman, director of manpower planning at Charleston Area Medical Center, and a dog track judge for the West Virginia Racing Commission, where he retired. Thaw also worked for Sen. Jay Rockefeller in several capacities. In 1969, when Rockefeller was secretary of state, Thaw served as his deputy. After Rockefeller became governor in 1977, he named Thaw his executive assistant. In 1980 Thaw became director of the states Comprehensive Employment and Training Act program and later director of the Job Training Partnership Act. Thaw, Jordon and Raglin also took their oaths of office Tuesday. All three were reelected in May. Raglin was selected as the president pro tem, fellow board member Jim Crawford was named the boards new Regional Education Service Agency representative and Raglin the alternative representative. All are two-year terms. Also at Tuesdays meeting, board members voted to move former East Bank Middle Principal Candace Strader to Bridgeview Elementary School. Strader left East Bank at the end of the school year so the school could receive a share of West Virginias $22 million in School Improvement Grant money. The Obama administration awarded West Virginia that money in March, and each of the states 33 lowest performing schools were eligible to receive between $500,000 and $2 million. But to receive the money, principals at the worst of those low-performing schools had to leave their jobs. Duerring appointed Strader to an assistant principal job at Sissonville Middle, but she applied to replace retiring principal Cheryl Plear at Dunbar Intermediate. Board members denied that request at a meeting last month. They said they were concerned that placing Strader in Dunbar might hurt the school systems relationship with that community, which is already damaged. Five other schools will start the 2010-11 year with new principals. Robert Somerville will become Anne Bailey Elementarys principal. He was previously an assistant principal at Andrew Jackson Middle. Barbara Lewis will become Alban Elementarys principal. Maria Bird, Flinn Elementarys assistant principal, will become principal. Bridge Elementary Principal Jodie Hypes will move to Dunbar Primary.

TOM HINDMAN/DAILY MAIL Pete Thaws grandchildren Robbie, 10, holding a Bible, and Carly, 14, look on as Thaw is sworn in for his fourth term on the Kanawha County Board of Education. Shortly afterward, members unanimously voted Thaw as board president.

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