Longtime Carroll County educator and school board member Patricia Dorsey is being honored for her contributions to the field of education.
Dorsey, 74, a current Carroll County Board of Education member, was given the Joseph R. Bailer Award from McDaniel College last month. The annual award recognizes a McDaniel master’s degree recipient for contributions to the field of education. Dorsey graduated from McDaniel with a master’s in education in 1983 and earned a doctorate in education from University of Maryland, College Park in 1999.
“It was very touching,” said Dorsey, who lives in Westminster. “I was very honored, and it was reaffirming of some of the things that I’ve certainly tried to accomplish throughout my career. It was good to know that someone was watching or someone was acknowledging some of my past efforts.”
Before being elected to the school board in 2018, Dorsey worked for Carroll County Public Schools from 1972 to 2011, as third grade teacher, Title I resource teacher, assistant principal, and principal, at William Winchester, Westminster, Eldersburg and Taneytown elementary schools.
After retiring from the public school system, Dorsey became a field assessment coordinator and field assessment administrator for National Assessment of Educational Progress, providing data collection and assessment services to aid in tracking student achievement.
Dorsey said receiving the award from McDaniel was bittersweet, in light of the loss of her husband.
“It meant a lot to me to receive it,” Dorsey said. “The first thing that came through my head was, I wish my husband were here to enjoy this honor with me, and that created a whole flood of emotions.”
The Carroll County Times asked Dorsey about the impact she has made on education in Carroll County. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
You made the decision twice to continue your education to attain higher degrees. How has that decision impacted your career?
It helped to open doors for me. It allowed me to apply for administrative jobs when I was working in the school system. Once I had made the decision that I was going to make a run for the Board of Education, it certainly opened up some doors for me there. I am quite active with our Maryland Association of Boards of Education, and that’s an opportunity that you can only have if you’re a board member. My mother used to tell us to go forward. She would say, “forward ever, and backward never,” so I keep striving to go forward. I loved learning, I loved everything that schools were providing. It was a fulfillment, something that I felt like I wanted to do personally for myself, whether anybody would have acknowledged it or not. It was something that I wanted for myself, to not just get the master’s, but then to also pursue receiving the doctor of education degree that I received as well. It’s one of those things where, when you work for things like that, those are things that no one can take away from you. It’s yours. I sort of went from taking my mother’s advice to continuing to try to move forward and I knew it was something that I wanted to certainly achieve for myself.
What roles have you had with the Maryland Association of Board of Education and what impact have you made in those roles?
I did serve for three years as a member of the board of directors. On the main board of directors, we would set the goals for the association, and we would come up with the strategies that we were going to use to pursue those goals. … Each each job that I’ve had, or each committee that I’ve worked on, all really connects. We’re trying to make sure that our organization, that our strong collective voice, continues. Our main focus is on our governance role. One of our biggies is that we always support local control. That, at times, can be difficult, because sometimes we feel like the local control is [being] taken away from us. [There] are bills that we will not support unless there’s changes made, because, we want to have local board authority.
What initially drew you to beginning your career in education, as a teacher?
I’m one of those people who can say that I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. It was just in me, so to speak. As kids, my sister and I would would play… back in our day, we created things to do. One of the things we created was, “let’s play school.” Whenever we would play school, I would be the teacher, and I would give her spelling words and math problems, and, I took on the teacher role. She was my little student. I’d even go around the house and question my mom, dad, uncle, and other relatives about how to spell certain words, or how to solve little problems or whatever. It’s almost like it’s been in me, I’ll put it that way… I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and I’ve always enjoyed learning. As a kid, you watch your teachers, and you see the things that they’re doing, you hear them, and they’re sort of your models. Already knowing I wanted to be a teacher, I was picking up from different [teachers] things that I liked, and maybe things that didn’t like. It’s something I’ve always had a desire to become.
I taught for for 10 years, before becoming a resource teacher, then moving into administration. Even once I moved into administration, I was still working with teachers. [I was] working at a different level, but still working collaboratively with them, as they were working to teach the kids. It’s been something that I’ve always enjoyed. We’re certainly not in it, as educators, for the money. It’s something more than that, we get out of teaching kids and being a part of education. Sometimes you don’t even realize the impact that you have on kids, but years later, they’ll certainly come back and share some things with you, and you begin to realize that.
Why did you decide to become a principal, and what was it like working for Carroll County Public Schools as a principal?
As a resource teacher… I went to Title I schools, giving professional development and trying to help the teachers incorporate different strategies or techniques to help the kids become more successful. In Title I schools, we really had to look at the data on how kids were performing, so my job was to try to help the teachers help the kids become more successful. I enjoyed that, because even though I wasn’t directly teaching the kids, unless I was giving a demonstration or a model lesson, I still had my foot in the door as far as educating the kids is concerned, by working through the teacher. … Once I became the assistant principal, then the principal, I had access to all grade levels, from K through five. I could really see the strands of the curriculum in each subject area, how they connect, and how we built upon prior years learning to set the stage for the next year’s learning. It’s good to see the whole continuum…
What made you want to run for Carroll County Board of Education?
[It goes] back to enjoying education, teaching and learning. In addition to enjoying learning, and having been retired for a while, I got to the point where I was sensing that it would be good to give back to the community. I’d already given, with my years of employment through the school system, but I still felt like I had something to contribute, to give back so to the community. When I saw that there was an opening on the board, I jumped in and ran in 2018.
You have been a popular candidate, winning the 2018 election in a landslide and narrowly defeating candidate James Miller for reelection in 2022, despite the other two members of his three-person slate winning seats. What about you and your message do you think resonated with voters?
I’m appreciative of the connections that not only I have made in the county, but also my family. I think when it came time to cast votes, some of those connections paid off. I had some parents who who said to me, they were parents that I had years and years ago… when they saw I was running, the parents said, “well, you better vote for Dr. Dorsey.” It’s that kind of thing, the connections I’ve had with the students, their parents, and staff members. My husband worked with the U.S. Post Office, so he certainly had a lot of positive connections in the community. I think the connections that helped to seal my victory.
What have you accomplished since joining the school board?
People have to understand, you can’t go in with individual goals and thoughts, “this is what I’m going to do, and this is what I’ll make sure happens,” because that’s not it. You’re with four other people; you’re a board of five. I have shown that I can certainly work collaboratively with other board members, from the first board to this current board. We don’t all think the same, we don’t always come up with the same kind of solutions to situations, but we’ve worked together, and I’ve shown that I could certainly work with folks. At times, I’ve been the lone person out there in some of the votes, and other times I’ve joined with others.
I’ve not been able to accomplish any one thing on my own, I’ve had to really work with the group. For me, what I’m most proud of, is that no matter what the vote, no matter what the situation, I’ve always remained true to myself. I went in with the ideal of trying to do what’s best for the students, for the staff members, the teachers, for the schools. … and that’s what I remain true to. … That’s the thing that I am most proud of, and it’s one of the things that you can’t lose sight of… You’ve got to be true to what you’ve committed to.
Why were you the only board member to abstain from approving the school calendar for the past several years?
That’s a perfect example of, even though I feel one way and I see the others are feeling another way, you just voice your opinion and move on. With the calendar issue, when I was still in the system, we had gotten to the point where schools opened that last week in August, and to me, it was great because college kids, for the most part, had already returned, and schools were active with their sports practices at that time. It seemed like everybody else was going back to school. … It made the day after Labor Day more efficient for us, because folks already had a week under their belts. I lived through it… and I certainly had teachers who were supporting that …
Is there an added significance to your accomplishments because you are a Black woman? Do you have a sense that it is a benefit to others to see someone so accomplished who also looks like them?
I think so. Years ago, when I first became a teacher, there were a number of African American kids in the school, and I thought, “this is good for them to to see,” that they had someone looks like them here, serving as a teacher. Then the thought came to me, “well, what about the other kids? Do you think it’s important to them as well?” I got to the point where I said, “yes, it’s important for them as well, to see me just as I’m presenting myself.” I don’t go around touting who I am or what I have, I’m just present. It was important; it was important for all the kids … A teacher is very important role and has a big influence on those kids’ lives.
What are your plans after your second term on the school board expires in 2026?
I guess I’ll be back to true retirement at that point. I’m active in my church, so I’ll continue to be active there. I serve as treasurer for my church, and I’m also a part of our music and drama ministry teams, so I’ll be continuing in those things as well. It’ll be church and family, as far as I can see at this point.
from Baltimore Sun https://ift.tt/myW4e5V
via IFTTT
