Tulsa World: Veteran Collinsville schools chief to retire

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Veteran Collinsville schools chief to retire
He spent his career there, including 24 years as the superintendent.

SITTING BACK
Pat Herald: "I just thought it was the perfect time for me to be leaving. Most of the people knew that it was coming."

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
Published: 11/16/2009 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 11/16/2009 3:52 AM

COLLINSVILLE — Collinsville's education wheel is losing its primary spoke.

Pat Herald, an educator in the district for nearly four decades, including the past 24 years as its superintendent, is retiring, effective Jan. 1.

"I just thought it was the perfect time for me to be leaving," said Herald, 61. "Most of the people around the community knew that it was coming."

Herald has served the district in nearly every capacity.

Starting in 1971, he taught social studies and driver's education and coached football and baseball. Positions as assistant principal and assistant superintendent followed before he became the superintendent in 1986.

"I'm one of the lucky ones, with good board members who let us make the day-to-day decisions," Herald said. "That has helped."

Herald's first hire in 1986 was Terry Due, who came to Collinsville from Dewey High School, where he was a football coach.

Due, now Collinsville's assistant superintendent, said of Herald: "He's got tremendous PR skills and he genuinely loves kids. Sometimes people get lost when they get into administration, especially a central office, and forget what they are really here for. He never has.

"And he's always had an open-door policy. That's contagious, with not just the administrators but with the teachers and coaches, too."

Herald said he had hired every one of the district's current administrators and 85 percent of the district's roughly 300 employees. A Collinsville elementary school is named after him.

The Jenks High School gymnasium is named in honor of Herald's father, Frank, a longtime Jenks superintendent who spent all of his 41 years in education at the district. He died in 2000 at age 81.

Herald, too, has spent all of his professional years in one district.

He is most proud of the district's string of successful school bond elections, eight in all.

Voters approved the first bond issue under his watch (for $500,000) in the late 1980s. The latest school bond issue, for nearly $10 million, won approval last year.

"What we've been able to do was keep up with our growth," Herald said.

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Elusive, the burbs (11/16/2009 3:17:16 AM) Congratulations Mr. Herald and good luck to the new Superintendant.
	Report Comment realist2010, (11/16/2009 7:22:42 PM) Good Riddance!

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