Five Questions: Mark Mayo

Mark Mayo brings a unique professional background to Marshfield, where he started July 1 as district superintendent. He holds a juris doctorate from Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan., in addition to multiple education degrees from Missouri State and Pittsburg State universities. He also served as a vice president and trust officer at multiple banks in the area, most recently Mercantile Bank in Springfield.

Q: Take us on your journey from law to banking to education.

A: I got my law degree … in 1980. I practiced law and also worked in the banking industry for a while. I got into the education business in 1996 (teaching at Carthage High School) and soon thereafter became a high school administrator at Southwest Barry County in Washburn. I went to Diamond for the 2001--–02 school year, and during the middle of the year, the superintendent passed away. They promoted me from middle school principal to superintendent of schools, and I was there until I got to Marshfield this summer.

Q: What moved you into education?

A: My law practice was successful, and I enjoyed my clientele, but I just wanted to do something different with my life. I went to Pitt State to visit with (former) professor (Tom Bryant) who had become the president of the college. He said, “I think you’d get a lot of personal satisfaction out of a career in education – that’s what you started out to do, that’s where you got your undergraduate degree. Why don’t you think about going into education administration?” That’s what I did.

Q: What’s your first order of business?

A: The first thing is to get to know my staff, the kids, the community. I’m new to the area – I was attracted to the job by the reputation of the school district and the community. I (had) heard positives about both, and so I wanted to get into this community and get to know these people and these kids before I really develop an agenda.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing a school administrator right now?

A: We’re in a standards-based educational environment now, and I have no problem with that. I think there needs to be standards and … we need to strive to achieve them. But I think the standards that have been established by the No Child Left Behind law are not practical, and they haven’t been given enough thought. It’s going to be difficult for any school in any state to fully comply with those over the long term. … The standards keep increasing every year until 2014, and it’s only going to get more difficult and more impractical to deal with.

Q: Are you lobbying for a law change, and do you think it will happen any time soon?

A: I’m not a politician. I hope that the politicians that are out there listen, and I think some of them do. The universal cry is that No Child Left Behind is not working the way it was intended, and I think over time there will be some modifications. But to predict when and how that will happen, I can’t do that.

Interview by Jeremy Elwood.[[In-content Ad]]