Wingfield

Wingfield

Seeks School

Board Seat

By SHARON KILPATRICK

Ktippuhannock Neni Staff Writer

Dennis Wingfield will be a candidate for the School Board from Piedmont District in the November election.

Mr. Wingfield is retiring at the end of this school year after 35 years in public education, 29 of them at Rappahannock County High School.

He came to Rappahannock to be principal of the high school in 1966, and he served as principal until 1982.

In March of that year, Mr. Wingfield received a letter from School Superintendent Robert Estabrook saying he had recommended that Mr. Wingfield not be retained as principal. At the April meeting, after a three-hour executive session that followed a very emotional meeting at which Mr. Wingfield received near universal support from parents, students and teachers, the School Board unanimously voted to uphold the superintendent’s recommendation and assign Mr Wingfield to a social studies teaching position. Chairman Beverly Massie is the only member of that board still on the School Board.

From 1982 through this current year Mr. Wingfield taught American Government, U.S. History and World Geography.

“I’m not doing this (running for the School Board) with any animosity,” Mr. Wingfield said. “Life’s too short for that.”

He said when he decided to retire at the end of this year, he assumed he would be “severing my association with the school sy stem. I had no reason to believe J would remain a part of it in any way.” However, he said he was approached be several people in Piedmont District who urged him to run for a seat on the board.

“I feel I owe these people something for the support they’ve given me over the years. I don’t know if I’ve made the right decision, but right or wrong, I will do my best," he said.

“I feel like 35 years in public education and 29 years in this school system have provided me with some insight into the problems and some of the good things as well,” he

See Wingfield, Page A-6