[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2233-E2234]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO PEG DUMBAUGH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PHIL ENGLISH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 7, 1997

  Mr. ENGLISH. Mr. Speaker, this year, one of my constituents, Peg 
Dumbaugh, is retiring as president of the Butler Area School District 
School Board. I want to take a moment to pay tribute to her fine work 
not only during her 4 years on the school board, but during her many 
years of service in the Butler Area School System.
  In November 1993, Peg Dumbaugh was elected to the Butler Area School 
Board for a 4-year term, and she was uniquely qualified to fill the 
position. For some years, she has been a former high school English 
teacher in the Butler school system, and had been the faculty adviser 
for the school newspaper, the Skyliner. After leaving the classroom, 
she has jointed the Butler Area School District's administrative team 
as Coordinator of School-Community Relations. During her tenure in that 
position, Mrs. Dumbaugh had initiated the Distinguished Graduate 
project, which each year recognizes an outstanding graduate of the 
Butler Area School District. One of the most notable of these 
distinguished Butler graduates is Dr. William J. Perry, our former 
Secretary of Defense. Finally, upon retirement from the school system, 
Mrs. Dumbaugh did free-lance work in journalism for the Pittsburgh 
Post-Gazette, among other things covering Butler Area School District 
school board meetings.
  With this rich background of diverse and relevant experiences, Peg 
Dumbaugh became one of the nine elected members of the Butler Area 
School Board overseeing a school system that is the 21st largest school 
district out of the 501 school districts in the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania. The Butler Area

[[Page E2234]]

School District covers 150 square miles, with an administration office 
building, 14 schools, nearly 9,000 students, and with a budget for the 
1997-1998 school year of over $58 million. During Mrs. Dumbaugh's term 
as a school director, the Butler Area School District implemented a 
$4.8 million instructional technology plan; introducing foreign 
language instruction and computer keyboarding in the junior high school 
curriculum; introduced Latin and Japanese foreign language instruction 
in the intermediate high school curriculum; and put together an 
excellent school supervisory and management team. And at a time when 
school buildings all over the country are struggling with structural 
problems, leaking roofs, and faulty plumbing, the Butler Area School 
District during Peg Dumbaugh's tenure has completed five renovation and 
expansion projects, is now completing a sixth, and has four more 
scheduled for spring of 1998. This, Mr. Speaker, is good management.
  Perhaps Peg Dumbaugh's most significant contribution to the school 
district as a school director comes through her 4-year chairmanship of 
the board's Policy and Legislation Committee. As chair of this 
committee, Peg Dumbaugh guided the district through a complete and very 
much needed revision of its policy manual, ensuring that school 
district policies were consistent, well-documented, and uniformly 
enforceable. But what is not so obvious in a simple recounting of Peg 
Dumbaugh's accomplishments as a school director is the quiet and 
thoroughgoing dedication that she has brought to everything she has 
done. As an elected school board director in a job that pays absolutely 
nothing, Peg Dumbaugh has spent literally thousands of hours working 
for the benefit of the Butler Area School District. She has had the 
kind of quiet dedication that we really are speaking about when we 
speak of values--to dedicate yourself to the task, to thoroughly do 
your homework, to quietly and consistently demonstrate the courage of 
your convictions in situations where others would cave in to the 
pressure of special interest groups, and to do all of this without 
asking, but what's in it for me? As a Butler Area School District 
director, Peg Dumbaugh has personified what we all wish for in the 
education system--the unwavering determination to provide a quality 
education to every student.

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