Dr. Randall Shaver

By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

New Whiteville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Randall Shaver’s teachers were his biggest influences and were the primary reason he entered education.

Shaver, who prefers the small town atmosphere, is known as “Randy” to friends. He officially took the helm of the schools July 1, replacing the retiring Dr. Danny McPherson.

So far, Shaver has been more than impressed with what he has seen of Whiteville and its school system. He and wife Carolyn moved into their Pecan Orchard home last week.

Shaver comes to Whiteville after an already long career in education – a career that was shaped by an impoverished childhood.

Born and raised in Thomasville, he was one of four children of alcoholic parents.
His parents had been successful business owners. His father’s abandonment of the family and his mother’s chronic bout with alcohol sent the family from prosperity to “destitute poverty” in a matter of months.

He said he had two parents who “just couldn’t parent.” His mother would be gone six or seven weeks at a time.

“They were not mean people,” he said. “I took care of them until they died.”
He said that he “made it” because of his teachers and Scoutmasters.

“I was always attracted to school,” he said. “My affirmations came from the teachers. My pats on the back were at school.”

He decided while in high school, that he would pursue either law or communications. He chose the latter, ­more specifically, speech communications.
After earning an undergraduate degree from Appalachian State University, he found a job at Trinity High School in Randolph County where, for seven years, he taught English, speech and debate.

Shaver liked the small-town atmosphere. He liked knowing all of the students and all of the community.

In 1982, he went to work at Andrews High School in High Point, where, for 17 years, he taught English and debate.

Shaver, who took his debate team to 14 state championships and two national championships, called debate the best academic competition there is.

Shaver soon found himself working at the state level with debate associations and found that he liked administrative-level work – that he had a “knack” for it.
After 21 years in the classroom, the thought of working in school administration began to appeal to him.

Shaver was impressed by a new principal at Andrews who was dynamic and enthusiastic. That principal encouraged Shaver to pursue an administrative degree.
He earned a master’s in school administration and soon found himself as assistant principal at Southeast Guilford Middle School – a daily commute of 82 miles round-trip.

Shaver had developed the reputation as someone who could turn things around in schools. At Southeast Middle, the students should have been scoring in the 90s on end-of-grade tests. They were in the 70s. Shaver helped to reverse that.

His reputation helped secure the principalship of Western Guilford High School in Greensboro.

While there, Western went from 600 to 1,800 students as part of the merger of the High Point, Greensboro and Guilford school systems. Shaver said they built a new school around the old one.

Redistricting and a lot of new growth with Dell Computers and the airport contributed to the massive growth.

Shaver went on to earn his doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and with the goal of ultimately being a superintendent, he accepted an offer to work as the associate superintendent in the Duplin County Schools.

“With each position I have taken, I have had the goal of being the superintendent of a small system,” he said.

Shaver felt the time was right to pursue a superintendency when he saw the Whiteville vacancy.

He ran into his old boss, Guilford County Schools Superintendent Terry Grier, and asked what he knew about Whiteville.

Grier, whose first teaching assignment was at Whiteville High School with then-principal Carlton Prince, spoke highly of the system and the town.

“That impressed me and I aggressively pursued this position,” he said.
Shaver said his goal as superintendent is simple.

“I want to improve the lives of students,” he said. “I don’t think our society, our way of life can survive without the public schools,” he said. “The public schools were built to support our democracy and way of life.”

“We often lose sight of that,” he said. “We criticize schools and teachers too often.”
Shaver said that criticism is important to education and that it must be open to such, but that lately there has been too much.

“We need to do better than we have,” adding that he has no criticism of past teachers or administrations. “We still have to ask the question, ‘What can we do better?’”
His first impression of Whiteville?

“It’s exactly what I thought it would be,” he said, happy with his decision to come here. He and his wife had visited other vacancies and made a stealthy visit to Whiteville to check it out. They liked what they saw.

And he recalled that as a 15-year-old on a summer trip with his mother – she was a professional fundraiser – they purchased his back-to-school clothes at Kramer’s. He had forgotten that trip until he recognized the unchanged facade of the store while visiting here.

The Shavers came to Whiteville not only as a career decision, but also as place to stay once they retire. They wanted a place near the coast.

The Shavers have four grown children – three daughters and one son.