Looking back: Like virtue, service is its own reward 

School district and county office of education board members are a dedicated lot. They have to be—they certainly don’t do it for the money.

Bettylou K. George is a case in point. She served on the Merced County Board of Education for 41 years before stepping down in 2005, earning her a place on the list of long-serving board members summarized in October’s California School News and reported in more depth in the current issue of California Schools magazine.

Maxine Frost is another long-serving board member. CSBA’s president in 1981, Maxine will mark her 40th anniversary on the Riverside Unified School District shortly after the new year.

One school board member’s spouse sought to stretch the concept of long service a bit.

“My wife, Rosie Switzer, is on the Benicia Unified school board,” Alan J. Switzer wrote. “I realize that this only the end of Rosie’s first year on the school board, but she taught in this district for 35 years. So she has 36 years of service to the students of Benicia.”

We’ll give Alan extra credit for trying—and for being a teacher for 35 years himself—and we’ll close out CSBA’s observance of its 75th anniversary by giving Rosie Switzer an honorable mention.

Every school board member deserves as much, and so much more.