It’s been a constant since 1996 at meetings of the Monongalia County Board of Education.
A person is at the podium, wrapping up remarks.
The digital presentation is complete. Accompanying handouts have been distributed.
“OK,” the presenter will say.
“That’s pretty much all I have. Any questions?”
Invariably, Nancy Walker will be the first board member to raise her hand.
She’ll laugh and give a mock-grimace, even, if her queries are going to be especially pesky.
“You know me,” she’ll say.
“I always have questions. Let’s go back to that second chart, if we can. Because I want to talk about that.”
When the board convenes for its first meeting for the new fiscal year in July, Walker won’t be there to raise her hand.
After 28 years – or, more than 9,400 meetings, when it’s all done – Walker is retiring from the board. She’ll be absent from the ballot for the May primary.
“You have to know when it’s time to step aside,” the Eastern District incumbent said.
“And it’s time. I have grandchildren to see.”
Her grown children were younger than her grandchildren are now, in fact, when she decided to make that first run.
Walker’s slogan for that inaugural campaign was, “The Parent’s Voice.”
All that institutional knowledge for which she’s now famous would logically build as she learned and grew into the position.
In the beginning, though – like, say, an old-school third-grader taking on multiplication tables for the first time – the rubric was on the small-scale.
One of her first missions was to change the scheduled time of parent-teacher conferences across the county.
“I mean, why have them in the middle of day when parents are working and can’t get there?” she asked. “That was a little thing that made a pretty big difference, I thought.”
Mom, in the building
Donna Talerico, Mon’s deputy superintendent, always smiles when she remembers Walker in those early days.
Not as a board member – but as an engaged parent.
Two of Walker’s kids were at North Elementary when she was first talking about running, and Talerico, at the time, was principal of the school on Chestnut Ridge Road.
Nancy was just one of those moms who was really involved,” Talerico said.
“She was on PTA and the school improvement council and she did Read-Aloud. And she was working the whole time, too. I wasn’t surprised when she said she was running for school board.”
Walker’s tenure included hiring school superintendents, and making changes with school superintendents.
She made decisions on the construction of new schools and the closings of beloved ones.
Along the way there were talks of curriculum and the advanced placement courses that are part of the fabric in the district.
Bonds that passed, and bonds that didn’t.
There was COVID, and the emergence of charter schools – with the debates and discourse over public monies funneled into private education they’re bringing with them.
Add in the Renaissance Academy, which would be the state’s first stand-alone STEM high school, devoted solely to science, technology, engineering and math.
“Everything we’ve done, and everything we’re doing, is in service to our students,” she said.
That call to service, she got early, back home in Clarksburg.
‘I just thought every place was like that’
Her father was a Rotarian who was actively involved in charity and outreach, and so was her mom, who was active in the Service League in town.
She remembers her hometown as a melting pot in those days.
Walker grew up hearing her mother’s parents speaking their native Slovak – and the Harrison County city also boasted active Italian and Greek populations, and a synagogue that was well-attended.
“I just thought every place was like that,” she said.
In appreciation of teachers
After her graduation from Washington Irving High School, she was off to Morgantown and WVU, where she received specialized medical training.
Today, she continues to work as a registered vascular and cardiac sonographer for the Mon Health Heart and Vascular Center. She was inspired, in part, she said, by her grandmother, who was in her 50s when she went to nursing school.
“I got a little impatient at WVU and went to ultrasound school because I knew I could go right to work,” she said.
“I had that opportunity,” she continued.
“That’s what I see the Renaissance Academy doing for a lot of our Mon County kids. We’re blessed to be in a community that values education.”
Being on the board, she said, was also a learning opportunity, with a host of mentors.
“I was on the board with Dr. Clarence Harvey and Stacy Groscup and Mike Yura,” she said. “You talk about people to learn from.”
Former BOE member Barbara Parsons feels the same way about Walker.
“Nancy was my mentor when I came on,” she said.
“She puts in her due diligence. She knows the issues. That’s why she is the one who always raises her hand. You couldn’t ask for anything more of a school board member.”
Still, there was one question she said. The two friends get together for breakfast whenever they can. Their most recent outing was this past Wednesday.
“I said, ‘Tell me seriously. Are you really not running?’ She said, yep, she was done. And there is something about going out at the top of your game.”
Walker, meanwhile, said she couldn’t have asked for more of Mon’s school district: from its service personnel to its high school seniors and all the populations of people therein.
“I love watching our kids go forth on graduation day, because I know they all got a good foundation while they were here. Look how well they do in the Ivy League.”
There’s a reason for that, she said.
“You won’t find a more committed, caring group of teachers, anywhere, who are so good at what they do. I celebrate our teachers. Every day.”
