Remembering Wray Stephens

2000 Wake County Board of Education Member Profile

A profile of Wray Stephens quickly reveals an interest in, and dedication to, achieving academic excellence for all children. A native of Fuquay-Varina, he earned a B.A. in Psychology from Davidson College in 1970. He then went on to become a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973 with a M.Ed. in special education. In addition, Mr. Stephens is a graduate of the Young Executive Institute with the UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate School of Business Administration.

Dedication to serving the educational system spans three decades for Mr. Stephens. He began his professional career as a special education teacher for Harnett County Schools in 1970. Three years later, he became a special education teacher with Wake County schools, and has been an influence on our educators and children ever since.

Over the years, Mr. Stephens has been a school volunteer, scoutmaster, and advisor for Junior Achievement. Commitment to the future of our children on a larger scale also led him to become involved as an officer in the United States Army Reserves from 1970 to 1982. At every level, he is concerned with helping to protect the welfare and quality education of our children.

Continuing to play a visible role in the community, Mr. Stephens has served as Director of the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce from 1984 to 1987, and was named their Citizen of the Year in 1989. He accepted the Director's position again from 1991 to 1997, and was Chairman of the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce in 1994 and 1995. During the same year, he was board member of the Fuquay-Varina Education Foundation.

Mr. Stephens is an active member of the Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church. He has chaired committees for finance, long-range planning, administrative council, staff-parish relations, and the board of trustees. Recently, he retired as President and General Manager of Stephens, a family-owned building supply and hardware business, to become Executive Director of the North Carolina United Methodist Commission on Outdoor and Camping Ministries. His wife, Judy, is the Director of Lay and Caring Ministries for the same church. They are the proud parents of four children, two in college and two married.

Insight
Wake County Public School System
December 1989

New board chairman combines teaching experience with business savvy

It may seem like two different worlds...that of a classroom teacher tucked away in the outer reaches of the county and that of chairman of the board of one of the Triangle's largest organizations. Yet Wray Stepehens has experienced both.

Stephens began his career as a classroom teacher in the Fuquay-Varina area, working with children with learning disabilities. Today he is the chairman of the board of Wake County's school system, an organization which is the fourth largest employer in he Raleigh-Durham area. Because Stephens' life in many ways mirrors the complexity and diversity of Wake County, he brings a unique perspective to his new role as chairman of the school board.

Stephens remembers well the profound fulfillment but also the deep sense of isolation that he felt as a teacher. "As a former teacher, I know what it is like to be in classroom, close the door, and feel that no one really knows or cares about what you are doing," Now as chairman of the board, one of his main goals is creating a positive environment in the schools for teachers.

In fact, his philosophy almost borrows from his current profession. Stephens left teaching after four years to take up the hardware business his father began in Fuquay-Varina over 50 years ago. As president of Stephens, now a building supply firm, he sells materials to others who then use them to build. That in many ways is how he sees the board functioning, providing the raw materials--the direction, the policies--but letting administrators and teachers do the building.

"What the board of education does best is provide a climate where professionals can do their job better," Stephens explained. "If we focus on day-to-day operations, we don't have the time and energy to do our jobs. Sometimes we want to get more specific and tell people how to do their job. However, that's not our role."

Nor does he feel that it's his role as chairman to take a stand and make others follow. "I have strong feelings regarding my role as chairman. I am a servant to the board," he said. "My responsibility is to make sure that the board functions well and that everyone has input and is well informed. I can't set a course individually, only what the board has said." Stephens feels his tenure as chairman, indeed, the future of the system, will be dominated by Senate Bill 2. "Senate bill 2 is extremely exciting. I hope it will mean a great deal to the classroom teacher. It will mean more responsibility for them but also more control. The bill will allow us to decentralize decision making which is very important. That's going to have more of an impact on student achievement than anything else has in recent years.

"Up to now we have not done a good job of measuring our results. We can't rest on the number of students we sent to college or the number of National Merit semifinalists we have, for instance, and use that to say we're doing a good job. We have to look at the progress an individual student makes. With Senate Bill 2, we'll have to do that."

"Of course, there never is an end to the education process," he said. "There will always be more for a student to learn. The important thing is to create an environment where the best professionals can do their very best work to create life long learners for students. That's my goal."

Insight
Wake County Public School System
June 1986

Whether in business or on the board, Stephens' unique skills shine through

Parent, Former classroom teacher. Businessman. Wake County high school alumnus. Wray M. Stephens, Southern Wake County's representative to the Wake County Board of Education, can see all sides of the picture when he sits with the other school board members to set policy and guide the direction of the Wake County Public School System. He brings a unique and well-rounded perspective, drawing on his wealth of experience and background in his deliberations with the board.

Stephens remembers well the sense of accomplishment he felt as a teacher working with students with special needs. After receiving a B.A. degree in psychology at Davidson College, he began teaching educable mentally retarded students in Harnett County. In his second year with the school system a social worker approached him about working with a student who was about to be sent to training school.

Stephens agreed and spent the year working with the student. "That year really sparked my interest in working with children with special needs. Working with that child and seeing the results of my efforts made me realize how much I enjoyed the challenge of working with children with emotional problems," he said.

After that experience, Stephens went back to school to earn a master of education degree with an emphasis in learning disabilities and working with the emotionally handicapped. The highlight of that educational experience was an internship at Dorothea Dix Hospital in the Children's Outpatient Clinic where he worked in child therapy and group therapy. He then returned to the classroom, this time in the Wake County system, and served as the teacher of one of the first learning disabilities resource classes in the county located at Fuquay-Varina Elementary School. He also taught at Lincoln Heights and Willow Springs elementaries.

While Stephens enjoyed teaching, he learned first-hand the frustrations teachers can feel. "As a former teacher, I know what it is like to be in a classroom, close the door, and feel isolated. Sometimes you feel no one really knows or cares about what you are doing."

"Obviously, as a school board member now, I can sympathize with teachers' feelings. There is a great distance from the school board table or the superintendent's chair to the classroom teacher's desk. That's a long gap to communicate through," he said.

"I wish there were a way for teachers to understand that our goals as a board, and our ambitions and frustrations about education, are probably very much the same as that of teachers," Stephens said. "The distance between us is so great, though, it distorts the picture we have of each other. In reality, we are on he same team and working toward the same basic goals, but we simply deal with different parts of the educational process."

Stephens' experience in the classroom is uniquely balanced by his business background. After four years of teaching special children, Stephens decided he needed to attend to the hardware business his father began over 50 years ago. "I did not leave teaching out of dissatisfaction, although I did feel some frustration because I wanted to learn and grow, to be a professional and have some input in the school and in the system. My primary reason for leaving, though, simply was a desire to be involved in my family's business," he said. So he took the reins of Stephens Hardware and Home Center in Fuquay-Varina and is vice president and general manager of the 40-employee business.

Even though his decision to run for election to the school board came after people in his community approached him about the position, he feels particularly suited to the post. "I did not know all that was involved, and I don't think anyone could have made me realize all that was involved. It seemed to me, though, that being a parent gave me a vested interested in the school system, being a business person was a perspective the board needed, and having been a teacher gave me the advantage of direct educational experience and involvement. With that kind of background, I really felt I had an obligation."

To Stephens, the greatest satisfaction of being a board member comes from seeing the board work together toward unanimous decisions resulting in significant programs and initiatives to improve education for the children of Wake County.

He cites the magnet program, the new building program, and the Professional Development Program for teachers as major achievements of which he as a board member is particularly proud. Stephens emphasizes, though, the importance of following through with these efforts and building on them in the years to come.

And obviously, as the school board seeks to continue the strong progress made thus far, it will draw heavily on diverse backgrounds, such as Stephens' in making the decisions necessary to chart the system's future course.

Wray Stephens looks back over 20 years on the Board of Education

Wray Stephens - articles over the years

Wray Stephens and a history of the Wake County Board of Education