Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993 TAG: 9305250579
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Long
Although the class lacks an official title, School Superintendent Robert McCracken is an instructor.
The curriculum is basically about two subjects: funding and policies, and there have been a number of tough quizzes since McCracken arrived four years ago.
School closings, staff cutbacks and funding shortfalls - the kind of issues that get school administrators fired - have tested his ability.
Yet McCracken, 41, rates an "A" from those who work with him, with consistent high marks for communication, fiscal responsibility and accessibility.
Earlier this year, the county School Board renewed McCracken's four-year contract, hoping he won't graduate to another, larger school system.
His salary will go up another $5,000 to $70,000, modest compared with most school systems - but McCracken said he has no complaints. He and family love the mountains and the pace of small-town, rural living.
The feeling seems to be mutual.
"The single factor that has benefitted Giles County has been the presence of Bob McCracken," said Marshall Leitch, regional Virginia Education Association representative. "He is among the better superintendents, in my opinion, in the state."
McCracken is an effective mediator, visionary and salesman and the right man at the right time for Giles County, he said.
Modestly, McCracken seeks to share the credit. But he agrees that he and Giles County are compatible, and that the results of the relationship have been mutually favorable.
McCracken came to Giles from Stafford County, on the fringes of hectic Northern Virginia, where he was administrative assistant for pupil personnel services. His initial salary was $48,000, about what he had been making. But the School Board boosted him to $55,000 a year later and $5,000 annually since.
Upon his arrival in 1989, McCracken found a financially strapped school system in this mountainous, rural county. Both the number of pupils enrolled in county schools - about 2,560 this year, some 85 fewer than two years ago - and the amount of state funding were declining.
Also, there was lingering bad blood from a controversial proposal to consolidate Giles County and Narrows high schools, and the prospect of more ill feeling to come over closing two small community elementary schools.
McCracken calls his greatest initial challenge "rebuilding trust" among members of the community, local government leaders and the school system.
Four years later, he has built bridges of understanding that keep Giles County schools above the pitfalls other localities have experienced.
Finances are just as tight - if not more so - here as in other counties, yet Giles teachers have received raises in recent years when their counterparts in larger, more prosperous systems have not.
Bitter budgetary and financial disputes are an annual ritual among local government officials across Virginia. However, in Giles the county supervisors allow the School Board to carry over unspent funds from year to year.
New demands for job market skills and economic hard times have combined to make local employment opportunities scarce. Giles is no different, but a local foundation of business and community leaders is trying to make Giles graduates better qualified for new job opportunities.
Giles' advances are primarily due to an atmosphere of trust and cooperation, which McCracken has helped to foster.
"He doesn't take a narrow view," Giles County Administrator Kenneth Weaver said. "He's a very astute person. Willing to try new things."
Leitch said McCracken is "inclusive" and "very open" to discussion of policies and changes. "He's eager to collaborate on important issues."
"I don't think that you need a lot of personnel sitting in an ivory tower barking out commands," McCracken said of his management philosophy.
Accordingly, one of his first initiatives as a new superintendent in Giles County was to reduce the size of the school system's administrative staff.
Downsizing the staff saved the county money without sacrificing efficiency, he said. That decision saved money and made a good impression on the Board of Supervisors, which appropriates local money for education.
"He looked at the overall needs of the county. I'm not sure other superintendents do that," Weaver said.
In tight financial times, the downsizing was a timely move for the county budget, Weaver added. "Without his cooperation it would have been a lot worse."
McCracken also says that staff reduction was accomplished by reassignments and retirements - not by forcing anybody out of a job.
The superintendent also takes a high profile in the community. He attends Board of Supervisors meetings, writes a column for the local weekly newspaper, and spends a significant amount of time in classrooms, with students and teachers.
"They're who I work for," McCracken says.
McCracken says he understands the system better from having worked at each professional level during his 21-year career as an educator - teacher, principal and administrator.
Also, McCracken is perhaps the only division school superintendent in Virginia who has served on a school board.
As a member of the Stafford County School Board from 1979-80, McCracken said he learned "perspective" and "respect" for both the role of professional educators and local officials in overseeing school systems.
"There are two sides to each issue," he said.
At that time, McCracken lived and worked in the expanding suburban fringes of Northern Virginia, a rapidly changing area he found frustrating personally and professionally.
Seeking a more stable community, McCracken moved with his wife and two children (now three) to Giles to live and run the school system.
"What impressed me the most was the commitment and pride you could physically see in all the school buildings. They weren't new, but they were very well kept."
McCracken says he feels at home at Giles, having grown up in similar terrain in the mountains of western Pennsylvania. The only difference between here and there, he says, is "the color of the license plates."
His goals for the Giles school system are modeled on his own expectations as a parent, to be informed and involved, he says.
by CNB