If You Ask Me / By Martha Knight

There was Gary A. Hardes, in the high school library, showing us the latest snapshots of his little daughters.

We were in the high school library because that’s where the school board met. So this was a while back. The school board stopped meeting in the high school library when a major renovation was about to start, and that space was repurposed, and a new library was built.

And it must have been a while ago because those cute little girls probably were pre-schoolers when he began to show us selections from Daddy’s Brag book. Now he has a Grampa Brag Book, the girls have had husbands and careers to their credit.

If Gary’s service to the school district had been as an employee, he could retire with a nice pension. As it is, he took early retirement from Hammermill some time ago. Was it Lyme? Some sort of health challenge slowed him down for a while.

But term after term, Gary ran for the board and got elected. He was defeated one time. What was that about? I believe he had incurred the wrath of the teachers’ union or a substantial number of teachers by stating his opinion that the English department was not preparing students adequately for college. Our honor roll, National Honor Society students with good grades in English should not go off to college only to find they had to take prep courses in composition to qualify for Freshman English.

Then there were the times Gary cast doubt on the necessity of stadium lights. The issue would arise every so often. Gary would want numbers. What will the electricity cost? How will the lights be serviced? Pesky questions!

When Gary was board president, it used to be interesting to watch him sitting up there at the head table, next to his former high school principal. Perhaps he thought back to when he might have been sent to the office and Mr. Skelton had asked him to explain himself.

If so, he gave no indication. Gary was courteous to Dr. Skelton, superintendent, but not overly deferential.

Later Gary was still on the board when Skelton had retired but had been elected to the board, and while Skelton was board president in his turn.

Gary Hardes sometimes voted against retaining Ronald Ungerer as superintendent, but was outvoted. Then came the time a majority of the board voted not to renew Ungerer’s contract, and Gary was vociferous on Ungerer’s behalf. During the great Ungerer controversy, when school staff and other community members organized the Save Our Superintendent group, Dave Errick took out a big ad in the paper to tell the public chapter and verse; and Gary smote the “Gang of Six” board members hip and thigh.

That was Gary. He told us what he thought.

Did he sit out his enforced absence from the board quietly, or sulk in his tent like Achilles? Gary did not have to be on the board to be effective in debating the issues. He would lob questions and comments from the “bleachers” in the large group instruction room in the elementary school.

Next time around Gary ran again and was elected. He was back on the board, part of the system again. But on the board as off, he could be independent. He did not agree automatically with the administration, or with the board majority, or with the conventional wisdom. He copped to being a curmudgeon. When I made him a pin-on badge identifying him as a Professional Gadfly, he accepted it and the label with apparent pleasure.

Gary liked to look into things. He made it his business to talk to school staff and check out rumors. When he was the board member some community member called with a question or complaint, Gary would pursue the matter.

He didn’t like hiring coaches or other supplemental salary personnel in batches. When those decisions were packaged that way, Gary could vote No on the whole lot, rather than endorse one he did not consider the right choice. Others might grumble but go along, but that wasn’t his style.

Gary has missed a few meetings, and apparently has reached the conclusion that he is unlikely to live here again anytime soon, so he has sent in his resignation.

The board will want to fill the vacancy, and soon, rather than take a chance on leaving it up to the McKean County Court of Common Pleas to make that choice.

But filling the board vacancy will not be the same as “replacing” Gary A. Hardes.

Speaking of vacancies, one of my favorite “No kidding, that’s what happened” stories has to do with filling an Oswayo Valley School Board vacancy.

The school board had not had time to appoint someone before the 30 days had elapsed. There had been letters of interest. A certain faction wanted to block a possible appointee, so it was arranged to have someone else scurry around and get some signatures on a petition to get Potter County Judge John Leete to appoint her to the board.

She arrived at the court house shortly after closing time, but got inside. A helpful janitor took the petition to the judge’s chambers, where he was doing some work at his desk before leaving for home.

Trying to oblige the would-be appointee, the judge took the petition to the prothonotary’s office (Dean Dow had gone home) and filed it himself, and scheduled it for prompt action.

A board member named Kellogg and a former board member and treasurer named Sturdevant got wind of this, and got a hot-shot attorney named Gerace to help them oppose this highly unusual way of handling such matters. Judge Leete presided, but Gerace called him to the stand and questioned him. The irregularities were acknowledged and the petition thrown out. I believe the school board wound up appointing Sturdevant.

It was my theory that one way to file an action in Potter County was to tie it to a rock and throw it onto the court house yard. But these days I guess they are quite conventional in their procedures, and now Senior Judge Leete is in the news in connection with his rulings in high profile matters in Centre County.

Peace.