Bartosh tapped for helm of Wharton ISD
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

JAMES BARTOSH

At the time when most men would be suffering from a mid-life crisis and trying to decide what sports car to buy, James Bartosh was deciding to continue to dedicate his career to education.

Bartosh was selected by the Wharton ISD Board of Trustees as the district's lone finalist to follow Don Hillis as the new superintendent during a special called meeting Tuesday night. Under Texas law, the district has to wait 21 days before it can officially sign a contract with Bartosh.

"I went back for my doctorate degree (in Educational Administration) in 2003," Bartosh said. He completed work on his doctorate in 2006 at The University of Texas at Austin.

"I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my career - either find another line of work like being a consultant for an architect building schools or to stay in education. I decided to get my doctorate and while doing that I realized I want to stay in education. I felt I had a lot still to share."

Currently the superintendent with Granger ISD, a Class A district located near Round Rock, Bartosh was the principal of the district's combined elementary, junior high and high school campuses from 1994 to 1999 when he became superintendent.

"We'd spent a lot of time there and I was waiting for my youngest daughter to graduate from high school," he said. "It was a family commitment to allow her to graduate with her friends. But now my wife (Debora) and I are looking forward to making a change. I wanted the challenge of being with a larger school district."

And while moving to a bigger district will represent a change for Bartosh, Wharton will feel a little bit like coming home for the school administrator.

"I grew up in Taylor and there are a lot of similarities," he said. "Both are farming and ranching communities and Taylor has a population of between 10 and 12,000, so I'm very comfortable with the size of the community.

"I also think it's great that Wharton is the county seat because it gives the community a sense of distinction and pride. And it has such features as being a regional medical center, which isn't something I was aware of until I visited."

And Bartosh said that even better than the community is the show of faith made by the board by voting unanimously on his being the finalist.

"It's the perfect way to start a new union," he said. "When you start with that kind of beginning, the places you can go from there - the sky is the limit."

While many people talk about the importance of the three "Rs" of education - reading, writing and arithmetic - Bartosh is an advocate of the four As.

"The number one A is academics," he said. "That sets the tone and is the most important aspect of education. It is what prepares students for their future lives."

The second A on the list is athletics, an area Bartosh has first hand experience with having a background in both coaching and serving as an athletic director.

"It's important because it teaches teamwork, hard work and the importance of cooperation," he said. "It is also one of the best at-risk programs that can be offered by any school system. There are students that might not have great success in the classroom, but do experience success on athletic fields and gives them a reason for staying with school. It's a perfect compliment to A number one."

A three is the arts, both fine and industrial.

"They are a means of allowing students to express themselves," a community takes great pride in showing off."

The final A, Bartosh said, is in part a result from combining successes of the others.

"It's attitude," he said. "Character development. That's what brings it all together, the work ethic and self discipline to be successful. A school district has to work on all four of these levels to be successful."

Bartosh said he is comfortable with a number of district policies, including the newly adopted policy making district residency mandatory to raise the visibility of the position.

"I've already been approached by both the Rotary Club and the Lions Club (he is currently a member of the Granger Lions) about joining," he said. "I think the residency policy is a good one for the top positions."

Of all the different things available in Wharton, Bartosh said Wharton County Junior College might excite him the most due to another of his academic philosophies.

"I believe in a pre-K through 16 education," he said. "In Granger, 50 percent of our students graduated with 15 hours of college credit through dual study and 100 percent of our students had signed up for postsecondary education.

"We had them registered with either a junior college, the military, a tech program or a four-year school. Not all of them take advantage of the opportunity and it isn't an official part of the curriculum, but we expected it to happen and our counselors, principals and other administrators worked hard to get the students to fulfill that expectation."