By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

David McWilliams

ROSS TWP. - Cooking is just one of the interests that David McWilliams plans to take off the back burner.

His desire to pedal cross-country, sing, get involved in the arts and spend time with his first grandchild are among the myriad reasons that McWilliams is ending his 35-year career in education.

This summer, McWilliams will leave Ross Schools after 10 years as superintendent.

He will leave behind a career that started in a suburban Pittsburgh junior high classroom for a new chapter in his life - one in which the 57-year-old educator becomes a grandfather.

It will be a time, McWilliams said, that will allow him to focus on family and hobbies - two areas of his life that often got shortchanged by his career. Yet the decision to leave was hard.

MCWILLIAMS FILE

Age: 57 Family: Wife, Sandy, a music teacher in the Edgewood Schools; daughter Heather, a teacher in Colorado; son Jesse, a ski instructor in Colorado Education: Bachelor's degree from University of Virginia and master's and doctoral degrees from University of Pittsburgh. Career: McWilliams is ending his 35th year in education. Before coming to Ross as superintendent in 1994, he spent nine years as assistant superintendent in the Talawanda schools. He has also worked at Switzerland Local Schools in Monroe County, at Ohio University and as a junior high classroom teacher in Pennsylvania, where he began in 1969. Enrollment: When McWilliams arrived in this southwestern Butler County school district, enrollment was 2,580 but dropped to 2,545 before increasing to today's 2,620. Projections call for 2,665 students for 2005 and 2,928 by 2010.

"When you (spend) almost a third of your career in the same place, you do so because it's a positive experience. Walking away is not an easy decision,'' McWilliams said.

This spring and summer he will help his wife, Sandy, through rehabilitation after two hip replacement surgeries.

And he's looking forward to trips to Colorado after his daughter gives birth to her first child in May.

"I'm excited. It's time for me to be here for my family, to give them the support they need,'' he said.

Soon, he will begin riding his bike again in preparation for a cross-country trip he is planning for summer 2005. Other plans include getting involved again in a barbershop quartet, with Oxford community theater and with a choral ensemble.

"I want to resurrect some old interests, some old hobbies,'' McWilliams said. "I love to cook. I have a lot of interests that have been on the back burner for a long time.''

Ross Board of Education President Edward Bosse said McWilliams' retirement is well deserved, but the board will miss his leadership.

Two of the last three years, the district was put in the "excellent"" category - the highest - on Ohio's report card. The district met all 22 indicators based on data from the 2002-2003 school year.

"He provided leadership to Ross Schools in our growth phase,'' said Bosse, who was on the board that hired McWilliams.

Bosse said the board has not yet decided whether it will look for McWilliams' replacement itself or hire consultants.