Des Moines Register
07-19-07
Successes many for board president
BY KATHY HANSON
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Ron Werner-Wilson and his family are taking stock of more than their possessions as they prepare to leave Ames for Lexington, Ky., later this month.
Werner-Wilson, currently president of Ames Community School District's board of education, says he's pondered the contributions he and wife Tracey have made in Ames. Compared with what he's gained from the community he's found the relationship surprisingly one-sided.
"Ames has given us more than we could ever give back," he said. "I don't think we've made an in-kind contribution at all."
Werner-Wilson can hardly be accused of sitting on the community's sidelines. In addition to his work on the school board, his day job has been assistant professor of human development and family studies and director of the
Marriage and Family Therapy Program and Clinic in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at Iowa State University.
His accomplishments include establishing the university's master's program in marriage and family therapy making ISU one of only five universities offering both a master's and doctoral program in that field, according an Inside Iowa State article.
And Werner-Wilson's research has benefited local and national clinical standards. For instance, his studies in the marriage and family therapy process have challenged misconceptions that women talk more than men in sessions.
His research in adolescent behavior factors suggests families - and particularly parents - have more positive influence on teens' behavior than popular culture would lead us to believe.
While the research and clinical work at the university have shaped Werner-
Wilson's career and offered a theoretical framework for family and community life, he said, the years spent as members of the community in Ames have been directly formative for him and his family.
Two of his three children were born here, and all three children have begun their journey of lifelong learning in Ames, he said.
He said he's grateful his children learned to read in Ames.

"It has been a real gift to our family," he said. "It's a debt I'll never be able to repay."
It was that sense of obligation that propelled Werner-Wilson into public service.
After the ACSD closed two neighborhood schools in 2005 - and one of them was the school his own son attended - Werner-Wilson decided to run for school board.
Elected to the school board that same year, Werner-Wilson said he entered public service presuming he knew what was good for the whole community.
"When I got beyond my own neighborhood," he said, "I realized how insular my mindset was, even though I should have known better."
Social experiments have proven, he said, that like-minded people develop a more extreme mindset.
"I had to get out into the larger community to recognize reality," he said.
His work on the school board during the past two turbulent years hasn't all been negative, he said. He's cultivated a deeper appreciation for the things the school district does right.
"Now I know first hand how hard it is to be a good teacher, and the sacrifices teachers make - like spending thousands of dollars out of their own pockets for supplies."
Werner-Wilson said, "I can't say enough about the district administration and support staff. We do some really great stuff here - things that are innovative, and not just for the talented and gifted - for all the kids in the classrooms.
"We (as a family) have not had a single bad experience with teachers," he said,
"and considering the odds, we must be doing something right here. Good teachers don't happen by accident. Working on the board, I now have a better sense of how good teachers happen."
Werner-Wilson said he and Tracey went to Lexington knowing exactly what they wanted in the new school district.
"We moved to Ames with a 2-year-old, having heard Ames had a good reputation for schools - and we took that on faith."
Contrast that with the move to Lexington, he said.

"We spent a week there, and got information on the schools about enrollment, planned closures, student/teacher ratios. We're much better school shoppers in
2007 than we were in 1998."
It's hard to leave the board, Werner-Wilson said, without worrying about the decisions it's facing - in the middle of unresolved school boundary issues and critical needs to improve conditions of elementary school buildings, for example.
"When we're dealing with school budgets, we've often used a catch phrase as a board to 'keep the cuts away from kids.' But in reality, there's no such thing as a school budget cut that doesn't affect the students."
For instance, Werner-Wilson said, "We keep cutting the curriculum and instruction department. Who's going to decide best practices? Who's going to keep up with advances in special education?"
Werner-Wilson said he's also worried about the outcome of the current controversy over school fees.
"If we're charging fees we shouldn't be, then we have to stop - and then we have to find ways to make up that lost revenue. I hope teachers don't have to take it out of their hides."
Werner-Wilson said working on the school board has clarified some of his academic theories.
"I teach a class on family theory about the contexts families are embedded in," he said. "I've always known schools are significant in that way. Now I have real life examples beyond my own family."
Werner-Wilson said he's looking forward to the professional opportunity of becoming chair of Family Studies Department at the University of Kentucky.
UK just completed a billion dollar fundraising campaign to realize its vision of becoming one of the top 20 universities in the nation, said Werner-Wilson. As director of the program, he'll have a different level of responsibility than he's had at ISU and will need to adjust to an expansion mindset.
"I want to put my stamp on the department," he said, "and one way to do that is practice some of the leadership skills I learned on the school board.'
In family therapy, for example, Werner-Wilson said, the therapists role is to help people articulate differing points of view and then validate them before going on to find the common problems and identify possible solutions.

"When people are not related - like on the school board - the task is finding the intrinsic motivation to work together," he said. "I hope I've been able to do that on the school board," he said. "I think I can transfer that skill to the new department."
Werner-Wilson said the highest compliment he could receive from the school board would be that they believe "they've had the opportunity to share concerns and be heard."
There's sadness in the Werner-Wilson family about going to a larger community and losing good friends, he said.
"My best friend as an adult lives in Ames - he's my youngest son's godfather.
Tracey's giving up a workout group, the Atta Girls. And we still have to face all the last times of going to our church, to favorite parks and grocery stores and restaurants. We'll make the best of it, but every week now we experience something and ask ourselves, do you think they'll do this in Lexington? I've even said to Tracey, 'I hope we haven't sold our souls.' "