[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9231]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       HONORING BOBBY W. BEASLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB ETHERIDGE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 23, 2000

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, today I pay tribute to one of my 
constituents, Bobby W. Beasley, the superintendent of Harnett County 
Schools. Mr. Beasley is retiring on June 30, 200, after 36 years of 
dedicated service to the children of North Carolina. He has served the 
people well, and his leadership will be sorely missed in my home 
county.

  Bobby Beasley, like many of those educators who have moved North 
Carolina to the forefront of education reform over the past 20 years, 
was born in one of our rural counties, Union County near Charlotte, and 
grew to manhood in Laurinburg, a small town in the Sandhills of the 
state. After graduation from Laurinburg High School, he enrolled at 
East Carolina University in Greenville intent on becoming a teacher. 
Four years later, he began his career as a math teacher and coach at 
Stokes-Pactolus School in Pitt County.

  After only 3 years as a teacher, Mr. Beasley was appointed principal 
of Bethel Elementary and Bethel Middle School, also in Pitt County, and 
he remained a school administrator for the rest of his career. Along 
the way, he also continued his formal education, obtaining the master's 
degree from East Carolina University and, later the six-year 
certification in school administration.

  Mr. Beasley came to Harnett County in 1974, recruited by 
Superintendent R.L. Gray to be principal of Angier High School. Those 
were momentous times in Harnett County, a largely rural tobacco county 
about to be caught up in a tremendous school consolidation effort 
designed to make its schools the equal of those just north of it in 
Wake County, home of the state's Capital City. Mr. Beasley was a key 
advisor at this consolidation took place, moving in a principal of one 
of the new schools, Western Harnett High School, when it opened in 
1977.

  Quiet, well liked by students, and a curriculum and instruction 
specialist, Mr. Beasley ran Western Harnett High School for 10 eventful 
years before being appointed assistant superintendent for curriculum 
and instruction in the Central Office in 1987. His focus began 
countywide as the school system evolved from rural to urban. With the 
retirement of Superintendent Ivo Wortman in 1994, Mr. Beasley was 
handed the reins of leadership for the Harnett County system.

  Mr. Beasley's terms as assistant superintendent and superintendent 
coincided with a decided push for education excellence on the part of 
North Carolina and its school systems. A testing and accountability 
system that has made the state an education leader in the nation was 
instituted in 1990 after the state dropped to the bottom of the nation 
in the SAT rankings in 1989. SAT average scores began a run upward in 
1990 and have led the Nation in improvement. In addition, the state's 
scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have been 
among the nation's best.

  Harnett County schools have responded well to this accountability 
demand. Under Mr. Beasley's direction, the average SAT scores have 
improved dramatically, this year topping the state's average. Writing 
scores of 4th graders are above the state average, and test scores 
across the board show that Harnett County students have responded to 
the need to work harder, score higher, and prepare themselves better 
for the technologically complex world in which they will live.

  Harnett County has invested more than $77 million in new schools and 
school improvements during Mr. Beasley's tenure as superintendent. He 
has shown himself to be an effective voice for school improvement, to 
be a public servant our leaders trust and admire, and to be a visionary 
man who knows what our county can and should become.

  It has been said that an elementary teacher may touch up to 1,000 
students over a lifetime of teaching, that a high school teacher may 
influence 3,000, that a high school principal may impact perhaps 10,000 
individuals. Bobby Beasley has served in each of these capacities--one 
after the other. He has gone on to take the awesome responsibility of 
running an entire system at a critical time in the life of Harnett 
County and been intimately successful.

  It has been said that a man and his times must coincide if great 
progress is to result. This quiet man who believed in the students he 
taught and those who attended the schools he administered was in 
harmony with what was needed.

  And Harnett County was better in the past--and will be eminently 
better in the future--because of Bobby Beasley's efforts.

                          ____________________