DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708280516

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: EDENTON                           LENGTH:  104 lines

LONGTIME EDENTON-CHOWAN SUPERINTENDENT REFLECTS ON CAREER

Retiring superintendent John Dunn is as enduring as the famous architecture in this town.

When Dunn steps down at the end of this year, he will have served 23 years as superintendent in the same school system. That's about 21 years longer than average, according to an unscientific figure bantered around education circles.

If he were a building, he'd be on Edenton's Historic Tour. Tourists would pay money to see him.

Not that Dunn, 60, hasn't taken on the controversial issues that eat at superintendents like silverfish in old books.

When he first arrived here in 1975, the schools were a wild mixture of students - a grades 9-through-12 school, a grades K-3 and 7-8 school, a grades 4-6 school, a grades 5-12 school and a grades 1-4 school. Much of that confusion was caused by the merger of the Edenton system and the Chowan County system in 1968.

Dunn was determined to organize things better.

``That's taken about 20 years,'' he said from his office on the third floor of a building that is itself 71 years old. ``That's been my career,'' he joked.

Now there is one high school with grades 9-12, one middle school with grades 6-8, which was built in 1991, and two schools for grades K-5. Contractors will break ground in a couple of weeks on a new $7.5 million White Oak Elementary School to replace the current one . The new school will accommodate 200 of the students in the sister elementary school, leveling both schools to a population of 600 each.

Dunn's efforts caused controversy, but in the end, most people praised his wisdom.

``We had a fragmented, nonsensical situation when he came here,'' said John Mitchener, former chairman of the Edenton-Chowan School Board. He was a member of the board from 1982 to 1994. ``A lot of superintendents are not willing to work with something that expansive over a long period of time.''

Mitchener said superintendents are in the unenviable position of having to coach a layman school board through the complications of running a school system. Yet, at the same time, he is responsible to the board and can be hired and fired by the board.

``One of the good things about John Dunn was his willingness and ability to accept that challenge,'' Mitchener said.

Dunn, a native of Williamston, began his career in 1961 as a business education teacher in Maryland. After one year, he went back to school at East Carolina University to get his master's degree in education administration.

``I really wanted to be a high school principal,'' Dunn said. ``That is what I had visualized I would do.''

He reached that goal by the time he was 31 years old.

While taking graduate classes at ECU, Dunn's abilities found the favor of one his professors, Ralph Brimley. Brimley had been a well-respected superintendent for most of his career.

According to Dunn, Brimley once told him, ``If you'll let me help you, I'm going to have to interfere with your life.''

``I said yes,'' Dunn said.

He got the first principal's job he applied for at Boone Trail High School in the Harnett County school system.

After just four years, he had already outgrown his original dream of being a high school principal and took the job of assistant superintendent in Harnett County.

Four years later, Dunn recalled, Brimley phoned and said, ``I'm interfering with your life again.''

With Brimley's recommendation, Dunn became the 37-year-old superintendent of Edenton-Chowan Schools.

During his long tenure, Dunn followed one of Brimley's axioms.

``He used to say, `Boys, you do what works,' '' Dunn said. ``He didn't agree with people who had a system they tried to force in place.''

Dunn is not one to force things, according to his wife, Janice, a school nurse in Edenton.

``He is not judgmental,'' she said. ``He never closes his mind to another suggestion. He will listen and weigh the odds. He is a good judge of character and understands why people get upset, therefore, he is very patient.''

While Dunn recalled his life and career, he smiled and spoke softly even about the rough spots. Was it a public front, or is he always this way?

``He's like that all the time,'' his wife said.

Her compliments are genuine. She gets no favors just because her husband is the boss. She recently requested another nurse in her budget but was turned down.

Before the schools had air conditioning, Dunn made sure his wife did not get the only ceiling fan even though she had the hottest room in the school, a fact proven by thermometers. He was avoiding even the appearance of favoritism, she said.

At home, however, Dunn puts the family first.

``He is very family-oriented,'' she said. Dunn has two grown children.

He sees family responsibility or lack of it as the biggest change in the school system since he began his career.

``Families used to take more responsibility for the child's needs and discipline,'' Dunn said. ``Now more people expect the school to try and do those things. I think schools are unjustly criticized for their efforts to deal with those social issues. If schools don't do it, who is going to do it?''

Typically, though, Dunn praises his staff and the community. He loves his job and that's why he's stayed so long, he said. Once he is fully retired, Dunn plans to do some consulting to school boards and teach classes at ECU like his mentor, Brimley, did.

When asked, he had just a few words of advice for his successor.

``This community will support this school system greatly if they're involved in what's taking place,'' Dunn said. ``He should listen to the community and assess what's being said to help determine what the next step is.''

He hopes that will help the next superintendent last a long time.

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