Auman retires from NW Ark. Education Service Coop

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

— The director of the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Farmington can describe his 42 years in education in one sentence: “That’s been my whole life, to make a difference for teachers and kids.”

Buddy Auman, 63, is retiring at the end of this month, after a total of 12 years as the cooperative director. He served as director from 1990 to 1997 and then returned on July 1, 2006, to finish out his career.

In between his two stints as cooperative director, Auman worked for Learning 24/7 of Phoenix and Teachscape Inc., of San Francisco, and he said he believes that experience made hima better director the second time around.

Learning 24/7 is a consulting company and Auman was involved with professional development training for teachers andadministrators across the country.

“I had access to the best minds in education,” Auman said. “And because of that, I knew a lot more when I came back and hopefully, I made a difference for students and teachers. I grew a lot and I learned a lot.”

The cooperative provides educational services for 16 school districts in Washington, Benton and Madison counties. This includes 5,800 teachers and more than 75,000 students.

One of the best parts of working as cooperative director, Auman said, has been the opportunity to pull all 16 school districts together and to help the 16 school superintendents collaborate and work together as a team. The school superintendents serve as the cooperative’sboard of directors.

“A coop gives the opportunity to pull multiple districts together for the one common goal of achieving student scores,” Aumansaid. “Truthfully, a lot of times I’m given the credit but it’s the high quality team we have here.”

The coop staff recently honored Auman with a retirement reception and many area superintendents attended the celebration, along with some state and national education officials.

Teresa Chance, assistant director for the coop, said Auman has a great ability to connect with people.

“He is a people person,” Chance said. “He has the ability to pull people together. He’s been wonderful.”

Chance said Auman would have a vision but he allowed people to do their work.

“He truly understands the concept that you bring good people together and you support that,” she added.

She points to the cooperative’s 21st century classroom as an example of Auman’s vision. This classroom uses all the latest technology and is used as atool to show teachers and students how the technology benefits education.

Farmington Superintendent Ron Wright said the cooperative was a good one before Auman arrived the second time but he said the cooperative has grown even more the last few years.

“I had no idea what we could accomplish,” Wright said. “We kept getting better and better.”

Lincoln Superintendent Frank Holman has known Auman for 30 years and considers him a good friend.

“He’s an outstanding educator,” Holman said.

“He has the best intentions of trying to help kids.”

During the past five years, the cooperative completed what’s called a “total instruction alignment” for all districts. Both Wright and Holman saidthey believe this iss one of the coop’s major accomplishments during Auman’s tenure.

The alignment was anintense weeklong process where educational consultants worked with 167 teachers to put together an alignment of the Arkansas education frameworks so students from all 16 school districts were moving at about the same pace and following the same guidelines.

“The total instruction alignment is the envy of the whole state,” Wright said.

“People all over the state, not just those in our coop, have benefitted from his leadership. He’s impacted all 75 counties.”

Auman graduated from college with a business administration degree and said he fell into education almost by accident. Back then, professionals did not have to have teaching certificates to go into education. Auman hauled hay in the summer for the Alpena Elementary Schoolprincipal and the principal talked Auman into teaching elementary education the next fall.

The principal later became sick and Auman filled in for the position on a part-time basis. When the job became vacant, Auman said the teachers at the school encouraged him to apply for principal.

After Alpena, Auman worked as a principal and then superintendent in the Gentry School District.

His next stop was the education coop, which at the time was located in Springdale. He holds three degrees, including specialist in educational administration from the University of Arkansas.

Auman does not have big plans for retirement. He and his wife, Linda, plan to garden and spend time with their five grandchildren, ages 5 to 11.

“We want to retire while they still think we are smart,” he joked.

Looking back over his career, he said he has no regrets and if he had to start all over, would choose education again.

“It’s been great. No kidding, it’s been fun,” he said.

News, Pages 12 on 06/15/2011