thursday,march 21, 2013 - County Times - Southern Maryland Online

The County Times
Thursday, March 21, 2013 20
STORY
Raspas’ Home is Public Schools
By Guy Leonard
Staff Writer
Salvatore and Myra Raspa have lived in
St. Mary’s County for nearly 53 years and in
that time their lives have been dedicated to
educating the children in the public school
system.
Starting as educators in the classroom
and moving to administrators, they have seen
the system develop into one of the best in the
state, possibly the nation, and they are proud
and honored to have had a hand in that success,
they say.
And while they have raised six children
here they weren’t sure what they were getting
into in 1961 when they first moved here.
Back then St. Mary’s County was more
isolated than either New York City where
Salvatore was born or the university town in
Tennessee where Myra grew up.
Salvatore got his first job here as a science
and math teacher, while Myra, who
already had a child, took jobs as a substitute
teacher.
“I came from a university town, it
was much more progressive,” Myra, who
taught English and journalism. “I was very
unhappy.”
Both Myra and Salvatore came from
families who placed a premium on education
for their children and they expected the same
level of commitment to learning from their
six children, Myra said.
“My first class was my own children,
they were reading before they went to
school,” she said. “It was not a matter of if
they were going to go to college it was when.
There was no cutting class, they knew they
needed to get the grades.”
But the community reached out to the
new comers, especially the then-principal
of Great Mills High School Jane Mattingly,
Myra said.
“She was so sweet to us, she took us
down to her farm and she would give us eggs
Salvatore and Myra Raspa received multiple honors last week at the Business, Education and Community Alliance,
Inc. scholarship gathering at Bowles Farm in Clements.
and milk,” Myra said.
Salvatore began to adjust too.
“We were having a good time, there
were only 15,000 to 20,000 people in the
county,” he said. “We had Great Mills High
School and Chopticon [High School], Leonardtown
High School hadn’t been built yet.
Where Leonardtown Elementary School is
that’s where Leonardtown High School was.”
Back then the children coming to school
were from the farming community, they said,
and the issues that exist in school today were
not a problem back them.
“Kids are kids but we didn’t have drugs,
there were no alcohol problems, there were
no fights,” Salvatore said, adding that many
students in high school would show up in
their rescue squad and firefighter uniforms
ready to respond to emergency calls.
It was, as it is today, a big part of the
community.
“All the guys would run out of the
school and when they’d finish up they’d come
back,” he said. “Class was disrupted two or
more times a week like that.”
As the county began to grow with the
demands of the navy base, he said, so did the
demands for space to house students.
The system began construction of new
schools and began to address some of its
deficiencies.
“They wanted a technical school, because
students weren’t really learning the
trades back then,” Raspa said.
Eventually the system grew into what it
has become today, recognized as among the
Photos By Frank Marquart
Salvatore Raspa has been elected to three terms
as a member of the county’s Board of Education
after a career as a teacher and principal.
best in the state and in the nation; Schools
Superintendent Michael Martirano now says
the system is graduating more students than
ever before and the drop out rate has been cut
back significantly.
The Raspas say the system’s success is
simple, making sure that they have some of
the best teachers around.
“There’s a push for excellence in everything,
you hire the best,” Myra said.
Salvatore said getting highly qualified
teachers is one of the Board of Education’s
top priorities.
“We put a lot of effort into that.”
That can sometimes bring conflict he
said, since the added cost of hiring the best
they can often comes up as an argument with
the Board of County Commissioners at budget
time each year.
But Salvatore is unapologetic about fulfilling
the school system’s needs.
“They [commissioners] beat us down all
the time… but we negotiate with the teacher’s
union,” he said. “If you’re going to keep exceptional
teachers, you’re going to have to
pay them.”
And in this new age when schools can
become targets of violence, the school board
must be ever watchful of student behavior;
something that was not really a problems all
those decades ago when they first came.
But now they know that whatever problems
students have in their homes and communities
they are all too easily found in the
classroom.
Local police have made a significant difference
with beating these problems.
“We have to deal with drugs and there
are discipline problems,” Salvatore said.
“The SROs (school resource officers) have
really helped maintain order. At first I really
opposed them in schools, but society has
changed.”
Still, the achievements the system has
made so far outweigh any problems and they
are proud to have helped push it to an enviable
state of excellence.
Salvatore has had the opportunity not
only to guide instruction as a teacher and
principal but also policy as a three-term
member of the Board of Education; Myra has
served teachers in helping them develop their
skills.
The school system, in a way, has been
their home.
“We’ve given our lives to educating kids
in our county,” Myra said. “We’re very proud
to have had that experience.
“We’ve both always found ways to reach
out to kids.”
County Commissioners Todd Morgan, Dan Morris and Francis Jack Russell present Salvatore and Myra Raspa with a proclamation celebrating their years of service as
educators.
guyleonard@countytimes.net