Schools are for students, and the Greenwood School Board tries to "do what is in the best interest of children" by supporting the work of the system's educators, Margaret Clark says.
Clark, a paralegal, bookkeeper and office manager for Clark Law Offices, is now in her second term on the board. During a meeting Tuesday, she was elected its president.
Her election signaled a departure from how the board has operated. Anjuan Brown, also a board member, said during the meeting that members wanted to rotate the position yearly. Barbara Gray served in the position during 2004. John Johnson held the position for much of his 20-year tenure on the board, from which he retired a year ago.
Now Clark has taken the reins, and she's holding them gingerly.
"I've not even chaired my first meeting yet," she said, explaining that she hesitates for attention to be directed at this point to her new authority.
Although the position is that of president, board members commonly refer to it as the chairmanship. Clark said, "To me, the chairmanship is not a position of power. My power comes when the other board members are with me. That's all the chairmanship is," she said.
The school board's not the only board to which Clark has been committing her energies. She serves as a Leflore County United Way director, and she is chairman this year of the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce's education committee.
The committee, among other activities, generates support for education, both public and private. A panel from the committee has gone, for example, talked with ninth-graders at Pillow Academy and the public high schools about making productive choices.
Clark's had plenty of experience helping children mature. She and her husband, Fred, an attorney, have four adult children, and a son in the first grade at Davis Elementary School.
Davis in the fall joined Bankston Elementary in being rated by the state as a Level 5, or superior, school. Other schools in the district also improved their rating.
"Of course, we want them all to be Level 5 schools," she said.
"We have a good, strong public school system. We do," Clark said.
She acknowledged that the system has its problems, but she said her experiences attending state and national meetings for school board members have taught her that many other districts suffer from worse.
"You learn that you really don't have any problems," she said. "This has been a piece of cake."
Clark, however, identified one of Greenwood's troubles as retaining new teachers and said she is hoping that community's becoming a more attractive, more livable place for young educators.
"The more Greenwood as a whole progresses, the more we will be able to get teachers who will stay more than a year," she said.
She said serving on the school board has taught her that teachers - and their work - are undervalued. "I know that we take teachers for granted," Clark said.
Teachers spend each workday instructing other people's children in the skills and information they will need to function well as adults.
"We should appreciate our teachers every day they walk through that door," Clark said.
While some children enter school prepared to learn, others don't. "You don't know what kind of home life these children are coming from and what the teachers have to deal with," she said.
"I think all parents need to take an active role in their child's education," she said. Parents can set priorities and teach self-discipline as a tool for accomplishment. For example, after school at the Clarks' house, their first-grader must finish his homework before he gets to play. And Clark makes sure he gets plenty of sleep each night so he will be alert at school each day.
Clark's own educational opportunities took her through high school, and she has taken some college courses, but doesn't have a degree. That once bothered her more than it does now.
She grew up in Lexington, one of eight children. Her father worked about 50 years in the news business, doing typography and composition for the town's now legendary newspaper, the Lexington Advertizer. The newspaper's owner, Hazel Brannon Smith, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for editorial writing about race.
Clark's first job was when she was hired to do alterations for a dry cleaner in Lexington. Since then she has worked on an assembly line, as a deputy tax collector in Holmes County, for a savings and loan in Greenwood and, since 1988, at the law office.
A plaque at the office from its staff cites Clark as a particularly hard-working woman. These days, much of her effort is directed toward improving the quality of life in Greenwood.
"We actually have come a long way, but Greenwood still has a long way to go as a community," she said. "It takes the whole Greenwood community to educate our children."
She urged citizens to visit the schools and learn how they can help assist in education. "Come in and find out. Don't go on speculation. This is your school system. We all have a vested interest," Clark said.
