New principal Bob Byrd brings diverse background
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

The man in charge Bob Byrd has been in education for nearly 20 years. He took over as principal of Brundrett Middle School this year.

Bob Byrd has been a farm hand, an oilfield worker, a construction subcontractor, a medic and mailroom clerk.

He also is a degreed professional who in the past has spent months touring Europe, visiting the Lourve and other museums. For most of the past 20 years, Byrd has taught middle school and high school classes in Aransas Pass and Port Aransas.

His diverse experiences, he said, have prepared him well for his new post: principal of Brundrett Middle School.

A widely varied background means "you can talk to anybody," said Byrd, 48. "You can relate to a lot of different people (and) whatever they're going through in life and understand it a little better, I think. I think that's very helpful, to have been there, done that.

"Not all people relate that well ... to the school environment," Byrd said. "You know, they talk to us quite a bit about that as we're coming up, especially in the administrative end, that you have to reach out and let people know I'm a regular guy here trying to do the best I possibly can for you and your kids and trying to help be a team and partners in this thing. It's just a way of talking to people."

New principal Bob Byrd talks with students on Wednesday, Sept. 6, as classes let out for the day at Keeping watch Brundrett Middle School. Byrd was a teacher at Port Aransas High School for 11 years before being hired in May to be principal of the middle school.

Byrd's wide array of life experiences began early. He grew up in Illinois and Ohio, his childhood homes ranging from the urban environment of Akron to the suburb of Brimfield, Ohio, to family farms near Casey and Yale, Ill., where he rode tractors, plowed fields and baled hay.

Byrd graduated from Effingham High School in Effingham, Ill., in 1976. Soon afterward, he enlisted in the Army, working as medic, operating room assistant and mail clerk. He served most of his time at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Fort Campbell in Kentucky and in Germany. He was honorably discharged in 1980 with the rank of corporal.

Searching for an occupation he could attack with passion, Byrd took journalism and urban planning courses at the University of Illinois for about 18 months, then moved to Corpus Christi. He worked for a while as a construction subcontractor, then turned to education.

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"You're doing construction, and there is a certain pride to the job, but I guess what I was always looking for was a purpose," Byrd said. "(I wanted) something that was beyond making a dollar and beyond racking up money in a bank account, something that would make me feel good about what I did every single day. And how could you go wrong trying to help kids, trying to impart what wisdom you've picked up in life and teach them the right way?

In 1987, he got a bachelor's degree

' in education at Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi). He did some student teaching in the West Oso Independent School District before taking his first teaching job at A.C. Blunt Middle School in Aransas Pass. He worked there for eight years, teaching Texas and American history, English, English as a second language and reading. He also coached football, baseball, basketball and track.

During his time in Aransas Pass, he married Helen Schneider (now a third grade teacher at Flour Bluff Elementary School) of Corpus Christi.

In 1995, he was hired at Port Aransas High School, where for the next 11 years he would teach physical education, remedial English, government, economics, U.S. history, world geography and advanced-placement world history.

He loved teaching.

"You do it right, and you get all the rewards that come back to you," Byrd said. "You get kids who care about you, who see you and say, .Hi, you're my favorite teacher.' ... You just feel good. You know that every ounce of energy you're throwing into your job every day is thrown in the right direction. It's thrown at something that is going to help society be better, help people's lives be a little better."

PAHS teacher Bill Slingerland had a classroom near Byrd for years.

"I think tremendously of him," Slingerland said. "He's very committed to the kids, very involved with them. As far as being a teacher, he knows his subject matter so well. And he makes his class a lot of fun for students."

Byrd delights his classes with impressions.

"He does a New Jersey mobster, he does Ronald Reagan, he does Bill Clinton," Slingerland said. "You can hear him through the wall. The kids just love it ... because, you know, it makes it fun. It's kind of like having Robin Williams as a teacher."

Byrd has become well-known for the colorful player introductions he has yelled for years on the gym's public address system before basketball games at the Port Aransas High School. It started when he went to his first pep rally, back when he first started teaching in Port Aransas.

"Coach (John) Grammer wanted me to do something, introduce something, and I did it, and I just kind of had fun with it," Byrd said. The students "got fired up and started hollering back. ... The coach got kind of wide-eyed and said, .Hey, can you introduce the team?' I said .Yes,' and so now, 11 years later, I'm still doing it."

In 2000, Byrd earned a master's degree in educational administration at TAMU-CC. In May this year, he was hired to be principal of Brundrett Middle School, replacing Travis Longanecker, who had moved on to be principal of the high school.

Why did Byrd apply for the job of principal?

"I was just ready for something a little different," Byrd said. "I still really loved teaching, and that made it harder to decide to do this. But ... as you're a teacher for many years, you see administration done well, and you see administration not done as well, and it makes an incredible difference in what goes on on campus. ... The administration sets the tone in a lot of ways for how things will be, whether the discipline is good or kids are focused or kids are happy."

PAISD Superintendent Billy Wiggins went to the school board and recommended Byrd for middle school principal over more than 50 other applicants for the job.

"I've had the opportunity to watch Mr. Byrd grow at the high school," Wiggins said. "I think he's very motivated, and he knows a lot about our district. ... He was just the right person for the job. He's earned the opportunity, but beyond that, he was the best."

A number of new things are happening under Byrd's administration at Brundrett Middle School. For one thing, a counselor, Jeri Franco, is teaching a character education program developed by the Boy Scouts of America. Students take the course, not for a grade that's figured into their overall average, but so they can learn better how good behavior and getting along with others are so important in society.

The Texas Education Agency in the 2005-06 year ranked Brundrett Middle School as "recognized" based on student scores on state-mandated Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests. That's second to "exemplary," at the top of the scale. Byrd said he plans to work hard to get the school to the highest ranking.

But Byrd said TAKS scores are not everything. While certain students should get extra attention in school to help them pass the TAKS, some middle schools make the mistake of not allowing students to take more than one arts-oriented or music course so they will spend more time preparing for TAKS, Byrd said.

Forcing more advanced students to spend a lot of time preparing for TAKS also is a mistake, he said.

"I think you lose the brightest kids," Byrd said. "You bore them to death. TAKS is not a big challenge for some of the brightest kids."

Byrd said he's excited to be working at Brundrett partly because the school is in such a good position to succeed. "We have an openness, a small-town

culture with sufficiently low numbers of kids, parents and school personnel so we can actually have the critical conversations we need to have, so we can get down to what matters," Byrd said.

"So, a big part of my job is to keep those channels open, to show people I care very much about them, about their kids," Byrd said. "When we have a disagreement about things, it's often going to be up to me to be a fair judge what goals and direction we will go in on any particular issue and to just maintain the underlying kind of passion and resolve to do things right."