Recipes for Living Dr. Dennis M. Bishop

I was born in Peoria, Illinois on July 13, 1945. My parents were George and Lorrie Bishop, and I have one sister, Sandy. We had the advantage of our parents being poor. It was in the days of coal burning stoves and furnaces, and Dad worked on an ash truck for Peoria Community Schools. Mother took in laundry. My parents taught me lessons that have stayed with me and influenced me all my life - a good work ethic and to save what I earned. I grew up knowing that if I wanted anything special I'd have to earn it. My parents couldn’t give it to me, but they gave something more important - they gave love.

My first enterprise was when I started a worm business selling fishing worms, and with that money I bought my first 22 caliber rifle, a new bicycle, and saved enough to pay for my first year in college. I sold popcorn for high school games and at the Peoria stadium for Bradley University football games. I worked myself up to being Number One popcorn popper and cotton-candy machine man and I saved that money also. That is why I am good at obtaining grants because I know how to go for what I want or need. In such ways I have put into practice my parents' good foundational teachings. Additionally I have taken advantage of what I learned from experiences.

I attended East Peoria schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade and graduated in 1963. While in high school I played tennis and swam on the county team. At end of my junior year, I worked for a sign company. It was my job to cut the grass around signs on the highway. I made $1.25 an hour but was laid off the first week in August because I had done a good job at keeping the grass trimmed and no more grew because there was no rain. However, in that process I met a young sign painter who taught me to letter. I used that knowledge to paint lettering on sides of pickup trucks. I also earned a lot of money lettering a variety of things in college.

One of the important junctures in my life was during high school when I was a life guard at the East Peoria swimming pool. I worked there for two summers and became an instructor. It was then that I started working with children, teaching them to swim. I discovered that I loved instructing them and loved the children, so a career was launched even though I didn’t know it.

During high school, a short, heavy set math teacher, Mrs. Simmons, taught algebra. She was a loving, kind person that took extra time with the students who needed additional help. I went to her and started loving math. Because of her, I took extra courses throughout high school and college. This translates into a reason why Murray Community School has the best financial situation in Iowa. That is not to say it was my achievement alone. It takes a team of dedicated people to run a school system efficiently, and Murray has that.

While in college, I decided to go to Black Hawk Community College in Moline, Illinois. I enrolled in 1963, starting in Engineering because of my love for math. However, I took a course called Educational Psychology, and became so interested that I switched, making that my major. I graduated, therefore, with a double major - in Education and Psychology. Because I liked physical activities, for two years I went out for track, and I ran the mile and two-mile in the same track meet. Our team won the state championship two years in a row.

I transferred to Western Illinois University at Macomb, Illinois to earn my BS degree. I majored in Elementary Education and minored in Physical Education. It was necessary to put myself through college, so I worked in the Food Service Department. I was placed in a kitchen that was between two girls' dorms, so I had 500 girls on one side of me and 500 girls on the other side. For three years, I worked a variety of jobs - server, milk man, steak fryer, and breakfast preparer. I had no trouble finding dates, and that was where I found my wife. She was from Niles, Illinois - a beautiful girl named Janet Lasken. She was majoring in English and Speech, and she has been an English/Speech teacher at Waukee High School since 1988.

When I was a junior in college, my parents bought me my own first car. It was a used '59 Ford Fairlane 500 that they bought for $700. I was still driving it after my wife and I were married. Our wedding took place just before I graduated from WID in 1968. For our honeymoon, we spent a week down-hill skiing at LaCrosse, Wisconsin. During that time, I noticed in a newspaper that they had an opening in their elementary school for a sixth grade teacher. I picked up the phone and called the superintendent. When I introduced myself and told him the situation, he granted me an interview. Before we left town he offered me the job. I was also offered one in Macomb, but Jan and I decided in favor of LaCrosse.

While I taught in LaCrosse, I began working on my Masters' Degree at Winona State University, majoring in Elementary Administration. My wife was working on her Bachelors' degree at LaCrosse State University. I earned my Masters' and Jan walked across the stage, pregnant with our first child, Carrie, to receive her Bachelors’ degree. I taught in LaCrosse for three years and then we learned of the opening of a new school with a different concept. This was to be team-teaching and teachers from around the district applied for a position. I applied and was selected to team-teach with a woman. We taught 75 fifth graders.

Earning my Masters' degree allowed me to become an elementary principal. I applied for and was given a job at Elgin-Millville School in Minnesota. It was a brand new school, kindergarten through sixth. While serving those students, I started work on my Specialist Degree for the superintendency at Winona State University. Jan and I lived in Rochester, Minnesota and had our first child within blocks of the Mayo Clinic. I served as principal for three years, and while there we had our second child, Christopher, at the same hospital in Rochester. Jan elected to be a mother and to nurse all the children and so she became a La Lecha League leader.

I was 28 years old when I earned my specialist degree and began applying for superintendent positions. I immediately received a call from Morning Sun, in Louisa County, Iowa. This is by the Mississippi River, south of Muscatine, north of Burlington. It was a school district of 310 students, and I had an excellent school board to work with. When I took the job at age 28, I was the youngest superintendent in the state of Iowa, and I still hold that record. It will probably stand because new laws will prevent its being broken. I was real "wet behind the ears." I served as superintendent for two years at Morning Sun, and while we were there, our third child, Matthew, was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

Highland Community Schools of Riverside-Ainsworth called me and asked me to become their next superintendent, which is unethical, but they did it. I decided to accept the job because I wanted to work on my Ph.D., and those schools are contiguous to Iowa City. I attended the University of Iowa, and my wife started working on her Masters' degree in English, taking a few classes, while caring for the children. At that time we decided to have our fourth child, Angela, who was born at the University Hospitals.

I graduated in 1984 with my PhD in School Administration from the University of Iowa. Highland had about 650 students at the time and I decided that I would like to become superintendent of a larger school system. So after 10 years as superintendent at Highland, we moved to Kingman, Kansas. Jan enrolled at Wichita State University to complete her Masters' Degree. We were there for two years when I decided to move the family back to Iowa, where they would receive a better education. We came back to Dallas Center-Grimes, and lived in Grimes. I served as superintendent for that school for 11 years. All four of our children graduated from Dallas Center-Grimes, and Carrie began dating a young man, Jamie. In 1988 Jan started teaching at Waukee, and is still there.

While I was at Dallas Center-Grimes, I had the opportunity to build a new 700 student elementary school, but in 1997, when it came time to decide where to build the new high school, each of the two towns -Dallas Center and Grimes, 10 miles apart-thought the school should be located in their town. I was caught in the middle, in a fire-storm. It was a no-win situation because no matter what recommendation the superintendent came up with, there was always a large group stating that it was the wrong decision. I decided after 11 years to look for another job. Within 20 days of my resignation, I had three offers. In January 1999, I accepted the superintendency at Murray, Iowa, where I have been very happy.

While at Murray, my two youngest children graduated from Iowa State University. That makes all four of them graduates of ISU while Daddy is a graduate of Iowa U. Two daughters and one son were football cheerleaders for ISU. Every time ISU beat Iowa, Daddy caught it in the neck. And of course, when Iowa beat ISU, Daddy didn't say a thing. (Sure.) The two girls were also basketball cheerleaders for ISU all four years.

I feel very fortunate that all of my children graduated from the same high school and university, and they all have good jobs. Angie graduated in May 2003, with a degree in Exercise Physiology. She completed her internship with Plus One Holdings, a fitness company, and has accepted a position with them. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and works as an Exercise Specialist and Personal Trainer in a building on Times Square in downtown New York.

Carrie, the oldest, married Jamie, the boy she went to school with in Grimes. They dated in high school and college, and were married before they graduated. He earned his BS degree at ISU, and was accepted by Widner Law School in Wilmington, Delaware. He passed his bar exams and is now an attorney, practicing in New Jersey. Carrie is a vice president at J P Morgan in New York City, and lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. She has her Masters' degree and is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant). As of June, 2003, she is five months pregnant.

Chris works for Ingersoll Rand Corporation and lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Matt is with Rubin and Katz, an accounting firm. He works and lives in downtown New York. He has passed his CPA in New York State. It is interesting that Matt has picked up an interest in genealogy which I began for our family. I had gone back to the 1800s and discovered German, French and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. On Janet’s side there were German, Polish, Irish, and Austrian. Perhaps I have opened a door that will be helpful to Matt if he chooses to continue this research.

It is not surprising, with our children living and working in New York City, that 9/11/2001, hit close to home. While living in Delaware, Carrie began working for J P Morgan, and was sent to New York City several times to work at the office on Wall Street. Later she was offered a transfer and took it.

The J P Morgan building was on Wall Street, 2 1/2 blocks from the World Trade Center. Carrie commuted every morning from Hoboken to the World Trade Center, on a train called "The Path." On September 11, 2001, Carrie went to work as usual, walked out of the train station and the two or three blocks to her Wall Street office. She heard a jet hit the World Trade Center and went out into the alley behind the J P Morgan building. She was standing there watching the smoke and fire, when she actually saw the second jet hit. She went back into the building, and after the two towers collapsed, she was trapped for six hours by the dust and dirt. She was on the cell phone with her mother after the buildings had gone down, and suddenly said,
"I have to go. I can't breathe because the dust is so heavy and thick in here."

Carrie and others went to the cafeteria to tear up and dampen aprons and tablecloths to put over their mouths and noses. Volunteer boats came up to the docks on the west side of Manhattan to ferry people across to New Jersey. When she arrived there, the firemen hosed all the people down. They called them the "gray" people, because they were full of soot, dirt, and ground-up whatever was in the air. The train that took her back home to New Jersey was air conditioned and she nearly froze to death. She wrapped up in newspapers that had been left and was colored with newsprint when she got home. She took off all her clothes and threw them in the garbage. She missed being killed by 1 1/2 hours.

My love for children that began when I was a life guard has grown ever since. I have a strong desire to see each child not only succeed in what they want to do in life, but also to mind and follow the rules. I will do some out of the ordinary things to entice these students to learn. For example, I offer some very nice prizes for students to increase their scores in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, which includes third through eighth grades, and we also give prizes from the ninth to eleventh grades for the Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITEDs). If a student scores 70% or above, or increases their last year's score by 2%, they win a prize. Then, plus all the other prizes, the class in ninth to eleventh that scores the highest as a composite, will win a trip to Creston to the YMCA and free lunch at a Pizza Hut. This has worked. The test scores have gone up. It also does one other thing; it takes the stigma of being a "nerd" out of the school.

I find myself reinforcing what my parents taught me. They are both, by the way, still alive and healthy, living in East Peoria. They brought me up to be honest, to work hard for what I wanted, and to respect other people's property. To support my belief that students should take care of their parents’ facilities, I offer a steak fry in May if they keep vandalism to almost nothing throughout the year. I started this program two years ago and we have had the steak fry two years in a row. It works.

I've been trying to teach the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades the Greek alphabet by using the symbols, and for a prize, they have to guess what the symbol means. They get all excited when I say the Greek alphabet. Recently a student asked me to say it real fast. I tell them, "You will use this if you go to college." So my challenges are not all numbers games. They have to think.

I have been in a school of 1500 students and one of 310 students. I prefer the smaller schools where I have closer contact with the students. For example, we have pop and candy machines in the school. There is some criticism of having them in the building, but I have used them in a positive manner. Profits are returned to the students. Money from the candy machines goes to the Student Council. With Pepsi money I buy small prizes, then I go in to second through sixth grade classrooms, and while giving the teacher a break, I play educational games with the kids, and give prizes for right answers. Just before school was out, I went into the second grade room and asked, "For a nice prize and a bottle of Pepsi, how far is the earth from the sun?" Several hands went up and the third student that raised his hand gave the right answer-93,000,000 miles. I was shocked, but happy.

As another return, Pepsi has given probably $30,000 worth of equipment for our athletic programs - volleyball-basketball, and softball-baseball score boards; football pads around goal posts, beautiful safety mats in the gym, an ice machine for the football field-just about anything we've needed. These are incentives for signing a contract to stay with them.

I believe in finding money that will directly help the Murray students so I am always looking for grants and gifts to make improvements. I thank former superintendent Lynn Padellford for hiring a grant writer for five schools in the area, including Clarke. In Murray we have increased the grants and gifts from approximately $20,000 a year to over $200,000 a year.

We received Harken grants to improve the safety of our building, and Harken grants to buy G-4 computers for our computer lab, and grants to build an outdoor education classroom. It has 10 areas of different kinds of plants and trees. One of the requirements is that, when possible, the children plant and tend them. One area is annuals and I help with the planting. I enjoy planting trees and flowers. I have also helped our school nurse, Mary Klein, plant several trees on the school property.

I have been fortunate and honored to receive recognition from the community and from my peers for a variety of reasons. On the evening of this writing, I am being installed as president of School Administrators of Iowa Area 14 Education Agency, and on the same date and at the same hour, I have been invited to receive a Pillar's grant for new stage curtains at the Murray Community Schools. So I will be in Creston while my principal and board members accept the Pillar's grant.

We have a close-knit staff at Murray. I expect everyone to do their job for the students because everybody is part of the team to educate that child. If one person drops the ball in his or her area, everybody is hurt. It is my job to know this and to replace that person. The superintendency is a complex position. The individual has to know a lot about everything in the realm of the school district. Finances and people skills vie for Number One in importance, but then there are fire regulations, the curriculum areas, and the skill of hiring and firing staff members. It is also necessary to know and follow law and board policies.

A most difficult responsibility is discharging an employee. Murray is one of three schools in the state of Iowa that is not a member of ISEA (Iowa State Education Association). There is no membership in a teachers’ union. The Murray Education Association is independent. My usual method of terminating a contract is to try the counsel-out method, making it as comfortable as possible for the person to leave. I prefer using resignation in preference to going through the more unpleasant process.

I consider myself different from any other superintendent, and maybe that is why I've been a superintendent going on 30 years. Money is not a factor. I have been offered positions for a higher salary, but I like where I am. The Murray School has the support and participation of the entire community. I like a smaller school where I can call the children by name, and mingle with them.

The heart of my desire to remain a superintendent is the children. I love to see the lightbulb go on in a variety of different ways. When I was interviewed for the position at Murray, I told the board of education I would do anything and everything to help the kids succeed, and to make improvements in the school. That is what I do, and I like my job.

I recently was invited to submit a resume for consideration in the Superintendent of the Year Award. I wrote that I have thoroughly enjoyed serving students and communities. The only aspect that I would change would be the time spent with the students. As an elementary teacher, I loved the close contact with students; as elementary principal, I was able to maintain that close contact, but not as often. As a superintendent, I have found this connection to be my biggest challenge. I would like to see this position's job schedule changed to include more time in the classroom and with the students. A school is a living organism. The superintendent is the heart. He or she is the pulse for the whole school district. A superintendent who is directly connected with the children of the district becomes a powerful mentor to all the educators of that district and will promote a climate for teacher-student involvement. This climate energizes a school district, and will, in turn, impact student attitude and performance.

It is now 2003. Janet and I have been married 35 years. She continues in her teaching position in Waukee, and I commute to Murray, often getting home very late. For relaxation, we have a special get-away as season members of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Des Moines Community Playhouse and Civic Center. We travel about once a month to Minneapolis, and attend events at the other two. I also run approximately 20 miles a week, and participate in 5K (3.1 miles) races throughout the summer. It is a great way to relieve stress. We also enjoy traveling to visit our children in their homes. In the wintertime I do down-hill skiing. For each of the last seven years, Doug Latham and I have taken one of our children to Colorado, and we have skied about every mountain out there. My wife and I have a speed boat and like to go boating. We have taught all of our kids to water ski. I relax also by working in the yard, planting flowers, and taking care of the grass and trees. It is a good life! In 1975 I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and I attend the Evangelical Free Church. Heaven will be great in the far future, I hope and pray.