[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 22, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E380]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING DR. VELMA BACKSTROM SAIRE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BUD SHUSTER

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 22, 2000

  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to 
honor Dr. Velma Backstrom Saire for her distinguished career in 
education, and especially for her being named as this year's 
Distinguished Woman in Education by the University of Pittsburgh.
  Dr. Saire will be concluding 45 years as a public educator when she 
retires this June from her position as Assistant Superintendent for the 
Quaker Valley School District in Sewickley, PA. Her professional career 
includes experience as a Restructuring Specialist for the Mon Valley 
Education Consortium and service in school districts in Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana, California, New Hampshire, and Connecticut as an 
elementary teacher and principal, special education teacher, director 
of the Allegheny County Schools Child Development Centers, central 
office administrator, middle school and high school principal, and 
part-time university instructor. She counts her experience as one of 
the developers of the Model School in McKeesport in the late 60's and 
early 70's, as the ``Camelot of her career.'' She has been a consultant 
and workshop leader at professional meetings throughout the nation on a 
number of topics related to curriculum and supervision. Since Carnegie 
Mellon University's John Heinz School of Policy and Management's 
Educational Leadership program's inception 10 years ago, she has been 
an adjunct professor where she helps prepare future school 
administrators. She notes that she will continue to do this after her 
retirement.
  Both high schools she led were designated as Blue Ribbon Schools by 
the U.S. Department of Education, recognizing them as exemplary schools 
along with the other 100 top schools selected each year. She has served 
as a site visitor for this program and as a reader for the U.S. 
Department of Education's National Dissemination Network. In 1992, she 
received the Educational Leadership Award from the University of 
Pittsburgh's Tri-State Study Council. In 1989, the Connecticut 
Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development designated her as 
one of three finalists for their Educational Leader of the Year Award. 
As a Connecticut high school principal, she was one of 25 public school 
educators selected for membership in the prestigious 100-member 
Headmasters Association, a group in which she continues to hold 
membership as an honorary member.
  A graduate of Glassport Jr.-Sr. High School, she is cum laude 
graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where she received a B.S. in 
Elementary Education, her M.Ed. in School Administration in 1967, and 
her Ed.D. in Administration in 1973.
  She serves her local church as Chairman of the Council on Ministries, 
Chairman of the Memorial Endowment Fund, and is a member of the 
Administrative Board. She is on the Sewickley Public Library's Board of 
Trustees.
  On a personal note, it is a special pleasure for me to recognize this 
distinguished woman in education because many years ago she was the 
little girl whom I escorted to a junior high school dance.

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