They’Re with You Win or Tie: Accounts of Wisdom, Humor and Inspiration During 31 Years as a School Superintendent

By Catherine Victoria Wells, Dr. Harold C. Carl II and Dr. H. William Mitchell

Hilarious stories youd never dream could emerge from the office of a superintendent of school! This book demonstrates that a good sense of humor is probably more important that possessing a PhD in dealing with the diversified spectrum of visitors who cross the superintendents threshold on a daily basis all with a problem that only he can solve! Youve got to deal with them all from the governors office and the state superintendent of schools to the least affluent and unemployed. How you do this, and making them all feel special in the process - dictates your measure of success and tenure in office. Also, that little bit of humor you inject into the seemingly most serious of cases, especially to the persons involved, may go a long way in diffusing some volatile situations and putting them into a workable perspective which then become win-win for all concerned.

This book also contains many valuable gems of wisdom in dealing with work related eventualities from some of the worlds wisest minds - such as Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Also some of Americas top executives provide inspirational themes which illustrate how they became top level CEOs

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467037259

Catherine Victoria Wells

Following a “hitch” in the USMC, Dr. Carl spent 42 years in public education, running the spectrum from teacher to superintendent. Interspersed in between were experiences as director of guidance, assistant principal, athletic director, and coach of football, basketball, baseball and track. He received his Bachelors Degree from Shepherd University in WV where he played on the football and baseball teams. He attained Masters Degrees from Frostburg (MD)and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA in counseling and educational administration respectively. His doctorate was earned at West Virginia University. He is a member of Phi Delta Kappa. Dr. Carl’s wife, the former Barbara Ansel and “the proverbial girl next door” is also a WVU graduate and retired teacher who holds the distinction of being an Ashland Golden Apple Achiever Award winner, Pleasants County Teacher of the Year in 1992 and was honored as an Outstanding Scholar by Governor Gaston Caperton. Charles Carl, III practices law in Romney, WV. All-State in high school, Charlie played basketball for the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown, PA. He and his wife Lisa, a banking executive, have three exceptional girls Holly, Hannah and Emily. Helen Catherine, school psychologist and administrator in Pleasants Co. is married to the county’s current superintendent, Mike Wells, a former all-state WV wrestler, and they are the parents of two scholar athletes, Catie and Drew. Lori Ann, the youngest child is principal of Pleasants Co. Middle School, and not to break tradition, is married to Mark Barnhart, a Pleasants Co. teacher and head basketball coach at the high school. Their three boys Derek, Trent and Grant are also scholar athletes with lots of potential. During 31 years as a county superintendent in two states Dr. Carl received many distinguishing appointments as well as recognition from the highest levels, but the stories found in these pages will always provide the memorable occasions he will never forget.

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Contents

Introduction

Dedication

Preface

Chapter I

Chapter Ii

Chapter Iii

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Introduction

They’re With You Win Or Tie is a must read. Unless you are leaving for another planet permanently, you will definitely benefit from reading Dr. Carl’s book. He tells us how to generate trust and commitment from others and how to help them. That’s the key—helping others.

The author, Dr. Harold Carl, was described by the late Norman Vincent Peale as a true role model for educators, coaches, parents and aspiring achievers, particularly in the field of education.

Dr. Carl is an achiever! He is an exemplar for husbands, parents, grandparents, leaders and educators. His leadership in West Virginia and Ohio as a superintendent of schools was outstanding.

If you would like a mental, spiritual and emotional up lifting, then you must read and read again Dr. Carl’s book They’re With You Win Or Tie!

Dr. H. William Mitchell

President of POPS International Foundation and internationally known author and inspirational speaker

I will prepare, and someday my chance will come.

Abraham Lincoln

Dedication

From pitching pennies against the curb at Alkire’s Shell Service Station in downtown Springfield, WV to our first date—rabbit hunting—my wife Barbara has been the wick that kept my candle burning for nearly the past 50 years. She’s been my inspiration to success, my confidante, my nurse, the mother of our three great kids, my accompanist on big and small game hunts, and my constant companion and picker upper through all the anxieties of my turbulent career.

When you hear the old adage there’s a good woman behind the success of every man, she typifies that statement—many times over!

All this being said, it was probably the humor and laughter we’ve shared together over the years that best kept me going! Here’s a former National Honor Society honoree, WV Teacher of the Year from Pleasants County, Ashland Oil Golden Apple Award recipient, and, gubernatorial appointed WV Outstanding Scholar whose greatest attribute to me was keeping things in perspective and making sure my cup was always half full, rather than half empty. Making lemonade out of the lemons, so to speak!

Humorously, Barb has always been about one syllable off on names. Marti Jones, a good friend from South Carolina, for example, was dubbed Schottenheimer by our guys, after the great NFL football coach. Barb, not knowing this, introduced he and his family as our good friends Marti and Emily Schottenheimer—and didn’t know the difference! She introduced our neighbors, Bob and Vidella Danielson as our great friends Bob and Vidalia Daniels.

Barb is one of the best back seat drivers I’ve ever know. Even when asleep! Once somewhere on a trip down south she shot upright from a sound sleep and commanded me to slow up, you’re driving much too fast! That being said, she immediately sat back down and went back to sleep. I was stopped at a red traffic light at the time!

This book couldn’t have been completed without the help and encouragement of our three great kids and their families. Charlie, a practicing attorney, Helen Catherine, a school psychologist and school administrator, and Lori Ann, a middle school principal. They, too, possess their mother’s abilities, characteristics, and humorous approach to life. For example, last summer in Myrtle Beach, SC, I pulled our SUV up to a restaurant door to pick Lori up after digesting a fine meal. She marched out, inadvertently pulled the back door of a neighboring SUV open, and declared this car looks like a junk heap—we’ve got to clean it out, and started to climb in. The startled owner of that respective car, who happened to be sitting beside us waiting for his wife to come out also, declared, yes ma’am, I plan on cleaning it out tomorrow!

So, I conclude with my justification to dedicate these works to Barb for two reasons:

1. I truly love and appreciate this treasure of my life who’s been so close, but sometimes overlooked or taken for granted over the past 50 years, for her irreplaceable value to me, and

2. Because this book could never have become a reality without her omni- presence and support—always there when I needed her!

"No man can become rich himself without

enriching others"

Andrew Carnegie

Preface

FIND A NEED AND FILL IT

Having been affiliated with the field of education in some form or other for literally all of my life, I house an innate compulsion to pay it back in some manner for all of the true blessings it has provided me. There is a Biblical axiom that says you have got to find a need and then fill it. I found what I believe that need to be, and hopefully through this effort I will attempt to fill it.

If my accounts of wisdom and inspiration don’t reach a nerve center, hopefully some of the humorous tidbits I’ve encountered over the years will cause enough chuckles to stimulate your mental health.

When selecting this title, I reflected back to a great source of wisdom in West Virginia—the deer gang. No different from all other deer gangs, the old guys were the sages we all looked up to back home in the hills and hollows of the Mountain State.

The wisdom they imparted often took some deciphering, but it related closely to the adage—just remember they’re with you win or tie, as offered, tongue in cheek, by one of my all-time favorite board members during a lively debate many years ago.

Thereafter, I carefully borrowed and applied a lot of deer gang wisdom when handling delicate educational issues involving the school system and the general public.

I recall, one day back in the ’60’s, during one of our legendary deer hunts old Bill looked up during lunch around the campfire when he heard a shot off in the distance. Studiously, he reflectively proclaimed—Well, he either got him or he didn’t! Wisdom! Another day during lunch Bill was blowing down his gun barrel to make it whistle. When asked why he was doing that, he very intelligently looked up and replied,

Just becuz. Wisdom! One day the conversation got around to the infrequently encountered wildcats in our hunting area and Big Alec, another one of our elders, and quite a horse by the way, was asked what he would do if a wildcat jumped on his back while hunting? His answer was simple—Well, I reckon I’d just reach up there and grab him. Wisdom!

Nobody ever knocks down the door to a superintendent’s office to tell him how great things are going—that’s why I chose they’re with you win or tie in my title.

Although we’re shackled with many tough decisions every day, if we didn’t throw in a little humor from time to time, we’d go berserk in just a few months. Something humorous can be found in most cases, regardless of their severity—and this allows the superintendent to maintain his sanity. Also, during the day-to-day operation of a school system some examples of wisdom and inspiration experienced by those who served us may be found very helpful.

Therefore, rather than write on generic educational issues which could usually be picked up in the daily chronicles, I’ve chosen to share some of the humor, wisdom, and inspiration which helped me survive nearly 40 years in education—31 of which were where the buck stops—the school superintendency.

School business is one of the largest industries in the United States.

It’s arguably our most important enterprise for several reasons:

1. Kids are our most valuable commodity, and we must shoulder the goal of helping them become successful.

2. Nothing’s more important than educating, training and nurturing the ones who will be tomorrow’s leaders. We must likewise accept the responsibility for this second goal—to make certain they graduate and assume their rightful post in society.

Like all other enterprises, we know that you run school systems on dollars and cents. We also realize we’re only as effective as the people we surround ourselves with as we endeavor to provide a key education. And, by the same token, these key people must develop curriculum and instruction which, in our case, will propel kids into the 21st century with the potential of being the best in the competitive world. An awesome responsibility, to say the least!

But above and beyond the X’s and O’s, we realize that it’s the intangibles that must come together to assure ultimate success. It takes a strong marriage between the parent and the school. They’ve got to be on the same team! Together they must instill into these young people a strong feeling of self worth and self esteem—because we all know if you don’t have a good feeling about yourself, you’ll almost certainly not feel good about your home, your environment, your work, or your school. And while positive attitude must prevail, even over aptitude, it’s a viable combination of these two ingredients that insure the competence in academics that we’re all working to attain.

Volumes abound about bonds and levies, finance, curriculum development, staff development, facilities, maintenance and transportation to name a few school related areas. But, you can be certain, they are minuscule compared to the Three B’s that really set the tenor in the lives of educators across the nation. Of course we’re referring to the formidable Beans, Balls and Buses. If hot lunch (beans), athletics (balls), and school buses are in order—everything else seems to take care of itself.

Granted, there are hundreds of opinions on all of the aforementioned issues—most of them written by much more knowledgeable scholars and academicians than I.

But—why haven’t any of my fellows and peers addressed the humanistic accounts which, believe it or not, surround all effective administrative decisions? What about the role humor and/or laughter plays in the effective everyday life of the CEO’s, upon who’s shoulders the buck must stop?

An occasional chuckle may be the only salvation we can reap from some very trying and nerve wracking times.

Hopefully, you can sit back and share some humor with me over a few encounters which may, at the time, not have seemed so funny to either side. Also weaved in are some reflections of wisdom and/or inspiration—so vital to success in any endeavor. Although most of these anecdotes relate to communication between adults in and around the school community, they still reflect in one way or another to a shared effort by all concerned to continually emphasize those two most important goals that young folks must attain to be successful in the 21st century.

These happenings occurred in and around my playing four sports at Romney, WV High School, receiving the coveted Athletic Award my senior year. Also woven in were a Bachelor of Science degree at Shepherd University, Masters Degrees from James Madison University and Frostburg State University, and a Doctorate from West Virginia University. Holding positions of teacher, Director of Guidance, Director of Athletics, School Administrator, and coaching football, basketball, baseball and track kept me busy—to say the least—until I became West Virginia’s youngest Superintendent of Schools at that time at age 33.

Accept these true stories in the vein in which they are offered—omitting some real names to protect the innocent . . . (and/or the survival of the author.)

"Try not to be a man of success but

rather a man of value."

Albert Einstein

Chapter I

Background

You Got To Go With What Brung You

Life is a journey—it has a definite beginning and ending. A long winding road connects the two points. For most of us, it’s a long journey—70 years or more or over 25,000 days.

The quality of that journey depends more on the person making the trip than it does on the conditions and circumstances found along the way.

A little background is always tantamount in order for readers to ingest the spirit of what’s being written. With humor as the key, a brief chronology of my journey while ascending to my first superintendency should help describe the rationale of the trip which peaked at that pinnacle. It is a road map for success so to speak.

Coal Mining Country

I spent my first and formative 16 years in Frostburg, the coal mining area of Western Maryland. There were fights and occasionally a stabbing or two every weekend in the gathering establishments, as the miners and other locals let off steam after a grueling week underground.

My father, being a Maryland State Police sergeant, didn’t help my plight with my neighbors and classmates. Many a day I’d get off the school bus and take a whipping on his behalf. If it wasn’t by the boys it would be by a big raw-boned coal miner’s daughter, all of whom hated cops. Not only did he not help my plight, he went to great effort not to intervene. I had to survive on my own!

Even those formative years, however, had their humor and perhaps stemmed my zeal for a good laugh.

First and foremost—through the art of survival and frequent daily scuffles—I learned the art of self defense. I’ll never forget that day when I was 15 and climbed off the school bus into the hands of the local bully who’d quit school years ago. He stuck his chest out, grinned at the gathering crowd, and grabbed me by the collar. Enough finally being enough, to make a long story short, I soundly thrashed him, then headed down the alley toward home. My next adversary was Old Man Meagers’ big red rooster who waited to flog me on a daily basis. After dispatching him, I walked right past his old goose who normally hissed and chased me home—and the rest