She has worked behind the scenes of Kings County's school system for 32 years -- taking on at least seven jobs at school sites, the county's office of education and Hanford Elementary School District. Wednesday, Sharon Bowie, assistant superintendent of program evaluation for the Hanford Elementary School District, will bid farewell to colleagues and to Hanford.

Bowie is retiring. She will be back to the area -- she plans to remain in the Valley during her retirement, so she can spend time with her children and grandchildren. But she is jump-starting her retirement with a trip up to Washington, where she plans to relax and visit Rebecca Presley, recently retired superintendent of HESD.

Bowie originally pursued a career in the welfare department -- she earned her bachelor's degree from Fresno State in sociology and economic sciences, but she saw the rewarding experience her husband, Sydney, was having in his pursuit of teaching and she decided to go back to school and join her husband in the field of education.

Sydney was hired to teach at Hanford High School, which landed the couple -- previously of Fresno County -- in Kings County.

Sharon Bowie worked at the Kings County Office of Education for 17 years, as a special day teacher, a program specialist for special education, a speech and language therapist and as the director of curriculum services. While at the county office of education, she worked alongside Paul Terry, who is now superintendent of HESD, and Harry Sussman, retiring superintendent of the Lemoore Union High School District.

"Sharon was extremely organized," Sussman said in recollection of the years they spent working together. "She stayed to task. She and I co-wrote some projects and programs and she always did a good job of keeping me on task. She's a very nice woman."

Terry recalled Sharon Bowie as being "an outstanding speech and language therapist" when they worked together at the county office of education in the 1980s. He was happy to reunite with Bowie in 2007 because she is "extremely talented and one of the most knowledgeable people" Terry has worked with in regards to curriculum and testing accountability, he said.

"I consider Sharon to be a confidant of mine and someone that provides me with advice," Terry said. "That's the thing I'm going to miss the most is that guidance. She gives advice to me in ways that are very constructive, and that will be very difficult to replace."

Sharon Bowie worked at HESD for 15 years, serving as assistant principal at Washington and Lincoln schools, prior to her work at the district office.

"I got to work with terrific teams of people in Hanford," Bowie said of what kept her in local education for more than three decades.

Of the many hats she has worn for local education, Bowie's favorite was as an assistant principal, though it was also her most exhausting. She recalled looking down one morning at work to find that she had two different shoes on. She had been so tired when she dressed that she hadn't noticed.

In her most recent job, as assistant superintendent, Bowie was responsible for coordinating standardized testing and assisting with the integration of technology into classrooms, among other tasks. Through her experiences with standardized testing, Bowie concluded that the exams don't measure "the totality of what a student learns." She added that accountability should have another component that more accurately "looks at the authentic student product."

Bowie said she will miss being part of the team of educators at HESD, but "it's time for someone else to learn."

And there is a lot to learn. Much of her many jobs have required her to comprehend education policies, practices and strategies, and make them comprehensible to other adults. Bowie refers to herself in her most recent job as a "teacher of adults," which can be challenging, she said.

"But I always think of challenges as what can I learn from them," Bowie said. Learning from something is her motivation to do it.

In retirement -- other than being available to her children and grandchildren -- Bowie doesn't have much planned.

"Until you close one part of your life, you don't know what the next part will bring you," Bowie said, recalling a quote from an unnamed friend.

But before embarking on an open road of relaxation and grandmotherhood, Bowie had advice for educators new to the profession.

"Believe in the children and believe in the power that the connection between a child and a teacher has in a child's life," Bowie said. "Each child is an individual. Children are all capable of learning. We need to be able to present information to them."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(June 16, 2008)