Utah Women's Walk Oral Histories Directed by Michele Welch
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UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY Utah Valley University Library George Sutherland Archives & Special Collections Oral History Program Utah Women’s Walk Oral Histories Directed by Michele Welch Interview with Lucille Stoddard by Kimberly Williamson December 5, 2011 Utah Women’s Walk TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET Interviewee: Patti Harrington Interviewer: Kristy Tyson Place of Interview: George Sutherland Archives, UVU, Orem, Utah Date of Interview: 12 November 2012 Recordist: Michele Welch Recording Equipment: Zoom Recorder H4n Panasonic HD Video Camera AG-HM C709 Transcription Equipment: Express Scribe Transcribed by: Brenna McFarland Audio Transcription Edit: Lisa McMullin Reference: PH = Patti Harrington (Interviewee) KH = Kristy Tyson (Interviewer) MW = Michele Welch (Director, Utah Women’s Walk) Brief Description of Contents: Patti Harrington was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and shares her experiences living in Denver, Colorado, where she was influenced by her parents in both education and business. She discusses her education at Brigham Young University where she received a BA in journalism, a teaching certificate for English/journalism and special education, and a master’s in education administration. She received her Ed.D. in education administration from the University of Utah. She speaks about events she encountered serving as the principal of Provo High School, superintendent for Provo School District, Utah state superintendent, and in her current role as Executive Director of the Utah School Superintendents Association. She shares the impact of family in her life, family traditions, the influence of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and her future aspirations. NOTE: Interjections during pauses or transitions in dialogue such as uh and false starts and starts and stops in conversations are not included in this transcript. Changes by interviewee are incorporated in text. All additions to transcript are noted with brackets. Clarifications and additional information are footnoted. Audio Transcription [01:37] Beginning of interview KT: Good morning, my name is Kristy Tyson. This is Monday, November 12, 2012, and I am at the Utah Valley University George Sutherland Archives in Orem, Utah, interviewing Dr. Patti Harrington for the purposes of the Utah Women’s Walk. Today we are going to be talking about Patti’s life and her contributions to life in the state of Utah. So, Patti, we’re so grateful you’re here today, thanks for taking some time to come on down to Utah Valley. We’re going to just go ahead and ask some questions and feel free to respond as you want, and we look forward to it. The first question I have for you is just background information. Would you tell us where you were born, where you attended school? Just a little bit about your background? PH: I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Both my parents were graduates of the University of Utah. They grew up in Salt Lake in what I consider the halcyon days of Salt Lake where they knew everyone, and everyone knew which high school they went to, so there was a lot of familiarity in my family with Utah. My dad took a transfer to Denver when I was five years old, and I actually grew up in Denver; that’s my heart home—still is. And we grew up in the southwest part of Denver along a creek bed—Bear Creek—and lived an outdoor life, and that’s a great childhood. We attended wonderful schools. Sabin Elementary School was where I went in my early elementary years. I was really happy there. Interestingly enough, I remember my principal in those days, which is kind of unusual. Usually you remember your teachers but not so much your principals. And then we were part of the forced school integration of Denver in the 1950s and 1960s. And although I had a five-minute walk to school, we were actually bussed across town for thirty-five minutes to University Park Elementary, also a fabulous school, and finished up sixth grade there. I started junior high, and then Dad took a transfer down to Los Angeles, selling steel for U.S. Steel. At the time that we moved to California, Mother became a fourth-grade teacher, and so I have both a business side and an education side in my background. I graduated from high school in southern California—Ganesha High School. I went to Brigham Young University in 1971—loved BYU—graduated in ’75, went back immediately to get a teaching certificate in English/journalism and special education and then, again,]about five years later to get my master’s. I was thinking I might be able to teach English and journalism at the secondary level, but at the time I was putting myself through my last few months of school, I began to substitute and became an aide in a special education Utah Women’s Walk: Patti Harrington 2 class, and I got hooked on teaching special-ed kids. And so, I worked to earn a certificate to teach special ed. I don’t want to get teary, just sweet memories. So I picked up my degree in special education. MW: We cry every interview. It’s just wonderful when people show emotion; don’t worry about that. We love it when you cry and we’ll cry with you. PH: While I was working in the special-ed classroom, I got hooked on working with kids with disabilities and picked up my special-ed degree, and of course in those days, English teachers were a dime a dozen and special-ed teachers, just as they are now, were hard to find. So I was hired to teach students that had intellectual handicaps and learning disabilities, and that’s where I spent my teaching career—in special education. I loved it, great fun, great joy. I spent seven years in the classroom. My eighth year, I became what they called a facilitator in Provo. I was assisting the principal, learning the principal’s job and then became the principal at Sunset View Elementary in 1985 in Provo School District. What I didn’t mention is all the while I was going through college, I was trying to work my way through, and before I was placed in a classroom to be a para-educator, I was actually a bus driver for Provo School District. So, I would take a bus run in the morning and take kids on field trips, primarily field trips, and then work my day at the school. That’s how I made my final years of college work financially. After five years at Sunset View I went to an overnight appointment at Provo High School as principal. The circumstances were unusual. Provo High had a football coach sleeping with a senior girl, and the school was two hundred thousand dollars in debt. District leaders wanted someone that understood enough about the budgets and the district to try and go in and ameliorate it. They opened the position, and actually hired someone to do that. I had thought about applying, but decided not to apply, and all summer long after I missed the application deadline, I kept sensing a strong message of “Something’s going to happen at Provo High, and you’re going to be appointed there.” And this is one of those, you know, coincidences of life, spiritual moments of life, whatever you call it. For me, it was spiritual. I kept denying it, thinking, Don’t think so highly of yourself; it’s not going to be yours; they’ve already given it away to someone else. And yet, at the end of the summer, my superintendent and personnel director came to visit my elementary school and said, “Something’s happened at Provo High School; we’d like you to take it over.” So, that afternoon I said goodbye to my Sunset View staff. We’re like family; you just love these people. Dear, dear friends. The next morning I was in a seven o’clock meeting Utah Women’s Walk: Patti Harrington 3 with the teacher leaders of Provo High School. I mean, some of the most legendary people in education in Provo taught there: Jan Cooper, Merrill Webb, Dwanna Riddle. I mean these people were amazingly wonderful and talented people, and now it was mine to go to Provo High and try to resolve some of the school’s problems. It was a difficult year. I broke my arm that year; my father passed away that year; I had to dismiss a very popular coach; I had to confront Channel 2 News which was constantly critical of me for having done what I did and, of course, they were not understanding all of the circumstances, nor could I talk about them. The people involved were people I had known for years, including the girl who was involved with the coach. She had gone through my elementary school. Her mother had been my right hand in the school’s PTA. So it was just fraught with an emotional aspect to it. I was grateful that I had this premonition all summer long that I was to do this. Otherwise, I could have easily packed up shop and gone home. But it’s like every other job that’s hard. When someone would say, “How do you like Provo High School?” Honestly, I was exhausted; I was tired; I was worried; I was losing sleep. I wanted to say, “It’s really hard, and it’s really difficult.” But you don’t say that because these are great teenagers who you’re also working with. So I would constantly say, “It’s wonderful, it’s great; I love being with the kids,” which was absolutely true.