Outgoing School Board Member Honored for 20-Year Service

HILLSBOROUGH – About 100 people turned out to pay tribute to Bob Bateman upon his retirement after 20 years on the Orange County school board.

Jonathan Hill, who heads Citizens for a Sound Economy, awarded Bateman the group’s Outstanding Achievement award at the dinner held Thursday at the Hillsborough Exchange Club.

The grassroots, nonprofit organization of 30,000 members stands for “less government, low taxes and more personal freedom,” Hill said.

“We think that Bob has stood with those principles on the school board,” Hill said.

“Any man that’s been a true conservative for 20 years on the Orange County School Board, when he gets to heaven, there’s going to be a line that says ‘No Waiting,’ ” Hill said.

Before the formal presentation, people talked about why they had come to the dinner in Bateman’s honor.

Robin Staudt said she had known Bateman since she became involved with Citizens for a Sound Economy four years ago. Staudt is a candidate for the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

“The fact that he has maintained his conservative stance on the school board – he’s really worked hard to find a balance between expenditure and what children really need,” she said. “He really wants to keep the tax base down, because he knows the people in Orange County can’t afford ever-rising taxes.”

“I appreciated what he’s tried to do,” Rachel Phelps Hawkins said. “He’s always taken a stand and never wavered. He’s had our interests at heart.”

Hawkins, who has lived in the county all her life, said she likes Bateman’s common-sense approach.

“We as Orange County natives appreciate that,” Hawkins said.

Other attendees include candidates for various county, state and national offices, including state Sen. Howard Lee,D-Orange.

Hillsborough Mayor Joe Phelps served as emcee.

When Bateman got up to speak, he thanked everyone for being there.

“It wouldn’t have been much of a party if I had been over here by myself,” Bateman said.

He said he especially appreciated the presence of fellow school board members Brenda Stephens, Keith Cook and David Kolbinsky. (Cook is a candidate for the Orange County Board of Commissioners).

Bateman talked about his 20 years on the school board, what it was like being in the minority as a conservative, as well as some of the achievements he is most proud of from those years.

He was unsuccessful in his first bid, in 1980, for a seat on the school board.

“I did get enough votes to encourage me to do it again,” Bateman said.

He won his first seat on the school board in 1982, and then, eventually, wound up getting 65 percent to 75 percent of the vote, he said.

“I am very proud of that,” Bateman said.

He also noted, as a mark of achievement for the board, the hiring in 1994 of William Harrison as superintendent, which changed the direction of the school system “from a kind of mediocrity to a system that had aims and goals,” Bateman said.

Harrison set up a standard course of study and also was responsible for the positive move of bringing in Randy Bridges as assistant superintendent of personnel, Bateman said.

Bridges went on to be named superintendent and just left to take a job in Rock Hill, S.C.

Being a minority on the board has not been easy, Bateman said.

“What I thought was a liberal board in 1982 holds no candle to the board today,” Bateman said.

The last year has been tough for a number of reasons, he said.

“It’s been a kind of up and down year. Last August, I was diagnosed with clogged arteries and had triple bypass surgery. … Some judge moved the election date and gave me five more months on the school board. I believe I’d rather go through the heart operation,” Bateman said.

“Some of the toughest battles in the last 20 years have been with the Orange County Commissioners, and that has not changed from what it was in 1982,” Bateman said.

“All these years, I’ve tried to do what I could for the children … children don’t come in neat little packages … You need to be able to take care of them … I try to be all I can be for the children,” he said.

Bateman thanked his family: His wife, Joyce, of 44 years, and his three children.

“I thank God tonight for his grace and his mercy and for keeping me as far as he has,” Bateman said.

He spoke of how his conservative views had been formed from his experience of growing up, as one of seven children, in the west Hillsborough community of Bell-vue, where he was born in 1933 to Ernest and Mary Bateman.

“We had it so hard,” Bateman said.

When he was in the 11th or 12th grade, his father had a heart attack and was forced to retire from working at the cotton mill, where he had made little money and had no pension, Bateman said.

His father never owned a car, Bateman said.

“Every month, my dad would get a Social Security check, and that was it,” Bateman said.

“So many people in rural Orange County are in this boat. … They live kind of hand-to-mouth, and then you sit up every year and raise their property tax,” Bateman said.

And, he spoke of some activities, such as flounder fishing, he plans to pursue in his retirement from the school board.

“Flounder fishing is not a habit, it’s a passion. When you pull a 5-pound flounder on the top of that ocean … there’s just no feeling in the world like flounder fishing,” he said.

Because of an earlier remark about the chance that he might continue to pursue his interest in singing, Bateman told the story about how he had recorded his first, and, so far, only CD. The recording session was a gift from his son, Mark, who wanted him to make a CD of Bateman’s favorite hymns. So about a year ago, Bateman and a pianist went to a recording studio in Carrboro.

“We recorded 15 songs, one right after another. Someone asked me if I wanted to edit. I said no. If I do it anymore, it won’t get any better,” Bateman said.

He gave one of the CDs to his sick brother, and when he went to see his brother the last week he lived, his brother had been listening to the CD, Bateman said.

“There are several [CDs] out in Hillsborough,” he said. “I don’t know if people use them in their gardens to keep the crows away.”