Catrett Has Officially Retired

By JOHN KUYKENDALL
After 13 years as Superintendent of the Talbot County School System, Dr. Jack Catrett has officially retired.
Dr. Catrett will leave after having been a teacher, coach, principal, counselor and superintendent for 44 years. He has served as a superintendent for 27 years.
“There is a time and season for everything as God has told us,” Catrett said. “My time has come. I’m needed at home right now and this was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made.”
During the interview with Catrett, he was asked what message he would like to leave the people of the community with, he became emotional and almost teared up.
“People have no idea how smart and sweet these children are,” he began. “I do, because I walked the halls with them day after day. I would like to leave the message to parents, teachers and the community, it is important to help them grow, develop and learn.
“I was blessed to be able to walk the halls with the folks here every day and I could never ask for a greater blessing than that.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve had to do, but I need to go home. I will miss the people, the children and this community very much. They will always be in my thoughts and prayers.
“The biggest blessing was being able to watch the kindergarteners when I arrived here go all the way through. It was an honor to present each of them with their diploma and I was so proud to watch them grow, graduate and realize that we had played a part in helping them have a chance for a better life.
“I’m 69 and will soon be 70. I was going to retire in November, but things have changed and I’m needed at home.
“I have been blessed to have the opportunity to be here at this historic school and area. I was blessed with a good Board of Education to work with, good Commissioners and a caring community. I am so happy I was able to serve this community.
“During my tenure I’ve received may awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award when I was with the Department of Juvenile Justice as superintendent and the President’s Award while serving here. Those awards mean a lot, but not as much as being able to walk the halls of this school, work with the faculty and staff and above all get to know these so very precious children.
“When I arrived here, I set goals. The goals included addressing the financial difficulties, to provide a nice and clean learning environment for the children and improve test scores.
“When I first arrived here the halls smelled awful and the buildings needed so much work. I learned the board had purchased land for $1 million but when I went out to look at it I realized there was no way a school could be built on it. The board had a bond debt of $10 million that was to be used to build a new school and half of that had been spent and I never knew where it went.
“I knew we had to do something, because at the time, Mildred Biggs was the bookkeeper and she told me we wouldn’t be able to make payroll by October.
“With her help, the help of Cynthia Epps and others, we managed to cut the expenses. We cut everywhere we could and went after grants and God helped us make it through.
“I told Mrs. Epps that I could not, in good conscious, allow the children to be in a school in the shape this one was in. With her help, we went to work and got grants and renovated the schools without having to raise taxes or spend tax dollars.
“At that time, we began working to get grants and the community was good enough to pass a referendum for a one cent sales tax that has been a tremendous help. With Mrs. Biggs and Mrs. Epps working with me, we managed to get grants and were able to renovate the schools without it costing the taxpayers. I had to battle for the size of our new gym. The state wanted us to keep it the size of a Class A facility. I battled and talked one of the state decision makers to come to a basketball game and he quickly realized it had to be much larger due to the tremendous attendance and we received the funding. It’s something our kids and community can be proud of and it is being used by the community.
“We had transportation issues when I first arrived and I found out that the system had been allotted three buses by the state, but had never purchased them. We purchased them and they came without air conditioning or radios, but they were new busses and we were all proud of them. We still have those buses and they still do not have air conditioning.
“Next was the chore of getting our test scores up. We worked through a great deal to get that done. We suffered a tornado and it affected our children. We counseled them and even had counselors from other systems come here and help. When COVID hit, there was about a third of our students who did not have Internet access, but we worked through it. We provided meals for all of our children and used our buses to deliver the meals. Other systems had the students come pick up meals, but not us. We cared and wanted to make sure our students were fed.
“Also, we have a very beautiful sports complex that before we could only dream about. Again, done without spending tax dollars. We worked hard to get grants to accomplish that dream.
“During the renovation of the schools, the construction of the sports complex and the renovation of the historic Arthur Miller gym we hired local folks. That meant dollars being spent at Big Chic, Dollar General and our gas stations which helped the local economy even more. We are not just a school system, we are the largest employer in the county and we believe in keeping as much local as possible.
“The Board has cut taxes five plus years straight. But we also realize that if we cut too much there are going to be local jobs lost.
“It hasn’t always been roses, but we would take the lemons and try and make lemonade. Like during when the gun violence incidents were occurring between some of Talbot County and Manchester, I wanted to have graduation for our kids, they deserved it. We took precautions. We had law enforcement from all over the area here, we had people in the woods, we placed our buses strategically to make sure no shots could get through. I had a meeting with the administration, our sheriff’s office at the time, emergency personnel and others. We were poised to call the graduation if anything seemed suspicious. We met with everyone, they reported we were good to go and I made the decision to go forward. It was a great day for our students.
“I believe the children who attend this school system deserve a beautiful place to learn, I believe they should receive a good education and I believe the system should always remember that every decision made affects the entire community.
“I have been blessed to be here and a part of this school system and this community. There is not a day that will go by that I won’t miss being here. I truly believe this is where I was meant to be. However, it is now time for me to spend time with my family and I’m needed at home and while I’m torn about leaving, my season here is over.”