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