Downing ready to pass the torch (11/22/06)

After a career in education, Barb Downing's looking forward to passing the torch to a colleague she has known for years.

On Friday, Dr. Tim Long officially joined the Jay School Corporation as assistant superintendent. Thursday he will become interim superintendent as Downing begins the transition to retirement. She is taking accumulated vacation and personal days beginning today.

On Jan. 2, Long officially takes the reins as superintendent.

"I'm trying very hard to make it a smooth transition and a comfortable one," Downing said in a recent interview. Last week, she already had begun removing personal touches from her office so that it would be a more welcoming environment for her successor.

Her career and Long's have crisscrossed paths over the years.

"I've known Tim for about 20 years," said Downing. "We did our graduate work at Ball State together."

Long, who has been serving as a consultant to the Anderson Community School Board during a building project, is a former superintendent at Monroe Central School Corporation.

Downing, meanwhile, began her teaching career in Anderson and had the opportunity to be Long's successor at Monroe Central, opting to come to Jay County instead.

"I always wanted to be a teacher," Downing, 54, said as she looked back over her career in education. "At one point early in my life, I considered going into law. ... But I found that if you can touch the lives of kids it will be passed on generation to generation. ... I'll always be a teacher."

A graduate of Pendleton Heights High School, she credits a high school journalism teacher with giving her the teaching bug. "She was a very good mentor," said Downing. "I thought that's someone I'd like to emulate."

Majoring in English with a journalism minor, Downing first took to the classroom in 1973 at Anderson Madison Heights High School, teaching remedial reading.

From 1975 to 1986, she taught English at the high school level, concentrating on advanced classes.

Then from 1986 to 1990, she served as assistant principal at Madison Heights. The shift to administration made sense for her.

"That was a good career path," she said.

She then worked four years in central office administration in Anderson before becoming principal at Yorktown Middle School.

"I came here in July of 2000," she recalled.

Downing first served as curriculum director, but the position later evolved into assistant superintendent under Dr. Tom Little. With Little's departure, she first served as interim superintendent before officially taking the job in the fall of 2001.

When she took the Jay spot, she also had the chance to go to Monroe Central's top job. "It was an interesting decision," she said. "I still believe I made the right choice, even though it was an interim position."

The challenges associated with the Jay Schools job in 2001 were enormous, with budget deficits caused by the diversion of school lease payments by the late Ray Dunn. There was a great deal to put in order. "The deficit - the Ray Dunn issue - was a real problem," she said.

Citing the efforts of business manager Brad DeRome, she said she's proud of the current fiscal status of the school corporation, though she warns against complacency.

"Fiscally, we're a sound school district. We were not. Period. There's no way to sugarcoat that," she said. "We're very proud of" the school system's current fiscal health.

But the school budget isn't the only thing Downing is proud of.

"First and foremost, (I'm proud of) seeing student achievement increase. District-wide we have the highest percentage of students passing the state tests in nine years," she said.

Downing also cited programs such as Kids Hope USA and the Rotary reading project valuable ways to get more community participation in the schools.

Between the two, she said, "at least 80 (community) adults are in the schools every week to work with kids."

Not everything has worked out as she had hoped, of course. "Rev. (Joe) Hines always says, 'Build a bridge and get over it.' I don't have any regrets," said Downing. Hines is her pastor at Redkey Faith Ministries.

Church volunteer work will be a factor in Downing's retirement activities. "There are things that should have been on the front burner and weren't," she said. "I want to do volunteer work in the county, and I still want to mentor with the Kids Hope program."

Downing and her husband Dave plan to travel and spend time with their two sons and granddaughter. "We'll be active."

As to advice for her successor, Downing offered this: "Keep the students and kids as the number one priority. Keep your eye on that fact, and everything else will come in line."[[In-content Ad]]