Somerset — Dr. Teresa Wallace applied for one job last year. Raised in Sandy Gap, out near Shopville, she wanted to come home.

“I had made up my mind before I applied, ” said Wallace in an interview conducted shortly before she formally took over the superintendent’s reins at Somerset Independent Schools from Wilson Sears July 1.

“It’s important to play fair with people,” Wallace said, “so I told my board chair in Lincoln Co. back in November, if Somerset offers, I’m taking the job.”

Invited for two interviews, Wallace was satisfied that Somerset Independent Schools is a “quality” system with a “strong board.”

A strong board, in Wallace’s opinion, keeps its focus on students.

When the offer came, her answer was yes. She knew what she wanted. She had systematically set about attaining her goal.

For a superintendent who intends to steer Somerset Independent Schools toward Kentucky’s Top 10—with her board’s approval—it’s important to sustain a strong sense of direction.

The Top 10 includes such outstanding schools as Ft. Thomas, but Wallace isn’t afraid to aim for the highest. The intellectual stronghold known as northern Kentucky doesn’t give her pause. After all, she’s already served as superintendent of Augusta Independent.

“There isn’t any reason why we can’t meet that goal,” Wallace said. “We have to look at each individual student; then, we have to get the help and resources needed to get their scores up to 100.”

Wallace acknowledges that “supplements to budgetary support” will be the biggest challenge her school system faces in the coming year. She feels confident, however, that Somerset Independent will respond to the call.

For starters, Wallace said she intends to adapt the “Great Leaps” program used in Lincoln Co. to Somerset Independent Schools.

“Great Leaps” relies on parental volunteers, according to Wallace. It is a “scripted” program designed for parents, and it leaves little room for doubt or confusion.

The “Great Leaps” program should help with cuts at Porter Hopkins Elementary, for instance, where class sizes may need to be a bit larger this year.

Wallace is nothing if not practical. She knows that her job requires both skill and ingenuity. But, her experience and temperament place her in a unique position to address the challenge she faces.

Wallace has less money to work with to implement her plans.

In Lincoln County, she had a $40 million budget. At Somerset Independent, she has about $11 to 12 million.

Fortunately, the Somerset budget should stretch further since the system has about 1,500 students compared with Lincoln Co.’s 4,500.

Federal grant money as well as state funding is based on number of students, Wallace noted. In lieu of paying a grants writer, she plans to write the grants herself.

“Somerset has let teachers go” to compensate for the budget cuts, Dr. Wallace said.

“The central office has lost two people,” she added.

Still, she is optimistic for the school system that attracted her to its top post based on its “tradition of excellence.”

In June, before she took office, Wallace sat down with Wilson Sears to put together a budget before it was approved for the coming year. She also began working with her principals on how best to strengthen the “learning communities” in their schools. An “early release day” for teachers to explore student needs was on her wish list, too.

Her first week at work was “busy,” Wallace said, but she encountered no catastrophes.

“I’ve had to deal with every personnel issue imaginable,” she said, so an initial week with no major issues or conflicts was a nice way to ease into her office on College Street.

Among her initial duties, Wallace began the process of placing three Chinese exchange teachers in suitable homes. A call from the director of the Asia Center at the University of Kentucky also opened doors for her to offer Somerset teachers an opportunity to expand their world views.

“Teachers will receive $500.00 for attending the seminar on Asia,” scheduled for late July, Wallace said. “It’s a great opportunity. I may attend some of the sessions myself.”

Wallace describes herself as one who is not adverse to hard work. It isn’t unusual for her to work long hours—and to take work home. Nor does she shy away from difficult matters.

As one of ten children, Wallace considers communication to be one of her strengths.

“I’ve been the free lunch kid,” Wallace said.

“Everyone is just as important as the next,” she added.

No doubt, Wallace’s work ethic helped her to rise through the ranks with dispatch. She started teaching math, grades K-6, in February 1985 at Nancy Elementary. By 2000, she was named Superintendent of Augusta Independent where she stayed two years before assuming the mantle at Lincoln Co.

Wallace attended Somerset Community College prior to completing her B.S. in elementary education at Campbellsville University in 1984. Her M.A. in education was awarded in 1990 by Eastern Kentucky, the university where she also earned Rank 1 in school administration and elementary principal certification in 1997.

While working on her doctorate at the University of Kentucky, Wallace received the prestigious Milken National Educator Award in 1996. The $25,000.00 prize allowed her to take a year off and focus on her doctoral studies full time.

Wallace finished her doctoral dissertation while serving as elementary principal of Berea Community Schools. She was interested in teacher motivation, particularly in “sanctions or rewards,” so she studied Milken winners to “see if money was a motivator” in their careers.

She was named Berea Business Woman of the Year in 1998, one year before her doctorate was granted by the University of Kentucky.

Even though women typically make 10 percent less than men, Wallace’s research indicated that Milken winners were not motivated primarily by money, rather by their “love of children.”

Granted, Wallace makes $60,000.00 less than the current Superintendent of Mercer County Schools, but she is “satisfied” with her salary “given what the system can afford to pay.”

To bring Wallace’s pay in line with men of the same rank is a challenge her board will need to address as she attempts to move Somerset Independent into the Top 10.

There’s no question about Wallace’s love for children. That’s why she chose to become an educator, she said.

Given Wallace’s work ethic and her sense of play, faculty, parents, and students in the Somerset Independent Schools should not be surprised to find Wallace teaching an art class should SHS art instructor Steve Watkins, for example, happen to be out attending a conference.

“If I have a picture of it, I can paint it,” Wallace said.

She particularly likes to paint small murals, but she hasn’t done much painting since becoming a superintendent.

Wallace takes great delight in the relaxing work she does on the Wallace tractor. She and husband John, an educator for many years prior to retirement, own a farm located on Hwy 39.

“My job is raking hay,” she said, “and I love it. It requires no thinking.”

Each year, the first week in July, John and Teresa host the Wallace family reunion at their farm. Teresa cooks the food, and no one is asked to bring a dish. The superintendent’s Hummingbird Cake has acquired something of a delicious reputation.

“I got the recipe from the Commonwealth Journal,” Wallace said, laughing.

After all, she’s a hometown girl, the first woman ever to head Somerset Independent Schools — and the first person with a doctorate, according to personnel files in the central office.

Will Wallace successfully steer Somerset Independent into the Top 10 schools in the state of Kentucky before she turns 50?

She has three years, and according to board chairperson Elaine Wilson, “she very possibly could.”

Wallace “has a lot of support,” Wilson said.

“We wouldn’t have hired her had we not had absolute confidence in her ability and credentials,” she added.