‘True public servant’: Sally Black feted as she departs after 16 years on Tiverton School Committee
Sally #Sally
TIVERTON — She’s the lady with the red hair and signature gold sneakers who devoted 16 years of her post-retirement life to serving on the Tiverton School Committee.
Sally Black, a mother of six and grandmother of seven, and owner of dozens of pairs of gold sneakers and shoes, was feted virtually at her last School Committee meeting recently that included a five-minute video montage of her at school and town events over the years, from school dances and sporting events to first parade marshal of Tiverton Days. She decided months ago not to run for a fifth four-year term.
The legislative delegation from the area took part in the virtual meeting, with many calling her “a true public servant.”
School Committee Chairman Jerome Larkin called her a “friend and colleague, and I would like to say Godmother.”
“Your heart was bigger than all of Tiverton,” High School Principal Christopher Ashley told her.
“Throughout this journey, you stood by us shoulder to shoulder,” said Suzette Wordell, longtime principal of Fort Barton School who is serving her first year as principal of Pocasset Elementary School.
After raising six children and working full time when her youngest entered first grade, Black said she had to find something new to do when she retired.
“After having six kids and working, you can’t just sit down,” she said the other day while waiting in her big van for some of her grandchildren to get out of karate practice.
Black spent a career as a special education teacher. She started wearing gold sneakers in the mid-1990s after reading a book to her alternative class whose main character’s last words before he dies are “reach for gold.”
“It means try your best and if things don’t work out, you start again,” Black said.
“Every day I wore gold sneakers,” Black said of inspiring her students to do their best. At her retirement party in 2001, all of the guests wore gold sneakers, even the coaches, she said with a giggle.
Her mission for Tiverton was making sure the town had a comprehensive high school “so there is a pathway for everyone to be successful,” she said.
She knocked on a lot of doors in town over the years and talked to a lot of people. She even got bit by a small dog once while campaigning.
In the 16 years on the School Committee, Black said she missed just two meetings. She was also liaison to the Town Council, always sitting in the front row at the Town Hall meetings and attended so many other meetings of boards and commissions the Town Council years ago presented her with a “golden pillow award,” to note her commitment and to make her hours at future meetings a bit more comfortable.
She was no stranger to the State House, having testified on numerous occasions about issues relating to schools. “The important thing is to tell everyone we want to be included. You have to be really aggressive. You’ve got to get a seat at the table, kind of remind them we’re here,” she said.
And be noticed, she said of bringing a child dressed in a chicken suit to the State House when there were hearings on tolling the Sakonnet River Bridge. She had heard on a radio show the East Bay was chosen for tolling because it would be “the easiest chicken to pluck,” Black remembers. The proposed tolling was later scrapped.
School Committee Vice Chairwoman Diane Farnworth told Black she always made the meetings fun. “You always found a way to make us smile,” she said.
“You led us in a direction that’s going to be an honor and a privilege to continue,” said Committeewoman Deborah Pallasch.
Committeewoman Elaine Pavao said she first saw Black at a high school sports event carrying a big stuffed toy tiger — the school mascot — and wearing a tiger coat.
“You definitely have a unique style,” state Sen. Walter Felag told her. State Rep. Jay Edwards said he is “honored to call her my friend.”
At the end of the video tribute, Jerome said to Black: “You probably cannot hear it, but I’m sure there’s thunderous applause” from those watching at home.
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: ‘True public servant’: Sally Black feted as she departs after 16 years on Tiverton School Committee