Note: This is the third story in a series by Athens ISD profiling the seven members of the Board of Trustees.
By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Specialist
Bob Spears grew up in Irving, played left wing on the soccer team in high school (“Though I’m not a left winger,” he jokes) and went on to earn a banking and finance degree from Abilene Christian University. He has been a member of the Athens ISD Board of Trustees since 2001 and currently serves as board secretary. His term on the Place 7 seat expires in 2016.
Spears’ path to Athens was a circuitous one, influenced in no small part by the turbulent banking climate of the 1980s. He spent most of that decade working at a bank in Sweetwater. “Then energy crashed, savings and loans crashed, everything was going downhill,” recalled Spears. “So I found a bank in Fort Worth with no energy loans, no farm loans, and I thought it had to be the perfect setting. All they had, in 1987 when I went to work there, were real estate loans. That turned out not to be a good thing.”
Spears shifted between the banks in Sweetwater and Fort Worth a couple of times until he was recruited in 1989 by what was then First National Bank of Athens. Eventually, he was again recruited, this time in 2005, to manage First State Bank of Brownsboro’s new Athens branch. He has been there ever since “and along the way got elected to the school board.”
He and his wife, Marsha, have four kids — three boys and one girl — all of whom graduated from Athens High School. In fact, when he was first elected to the school board, his oldest was in high school and his youngest in elementary school.
Spears said he decided to run for the board because school was such a big part of his family’s life. “We were very active in booster club activities and volunteering for fundraisers for the school, and we valued what we saw and the impact the teachers were having on our kids,” he said. “I wanted to join the board to contribute.”
Spears is both realistic and optimistic about the realities that face Athens ISD. “We’ve got a community that’s supportive, that shows their concern for what’s going on,” he said. “But we face challenges, such as attracting and keeping teachers and the challenges with having a highly diverse population and a high percentage of dual language learners and socio-economically disadvantaged learners. Those are challenges for the education process, but it doesn’t mean we can’t overcome them. We’re moving in the right direction to do that. … The keys are dedicated teachers and dedicated parents. It takes both – or it’s certainly wonderful when we have both.”
He points to the board’s handling of some difficult fiscal realities as points of pride. “In the time I’ve been involved with the board, there have been some very challenging financial times that required good management to weather the storm. When Heilig-Meyers [furniture distribution center] filed chapter 11 bankruptcy [in the early 2000s], it meant the loss of a half million in tax money for the budget year. And when we don’t collect a certain percentage of our local taxes, the state doesn’t match. So it was a double punch. … When that happens, you find out right away what is most important. Through that process, we became a more focused and stronger organization. … In 2008, the state cut $5 billion out of its coffers for school funding, and we went through that same exercise again. We did what we had to do and kept our focus on the classroom. Weathering those storms was an accomplishment for the district.”
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More about Bob Spears
- He has a great voice. Described as a tenor “probably sliding to baritone,” he performs when needed for funerals and at church functions.
- He’s impersonated Elvis a few times — as comic entertainment at a couple of social banking functions and once for the cafeteria ladies at the Eustace primary school when his family first moved to the area. “The lunch ladies went wild.”