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Wednesday morning was bittersweet for Guilford County school board member Dot Kearns.

The longtime Democrat was excited to see her party's sweeping victories - but it also marked the beginning of the end for Kearns, who did not run for re-election.

Former N.C. A&T professor Sandra Alexander will take over her at-large seat Dec. 2.

Kearns, 77, has spent the past 16 years on the county school board - the existence of which in its current form is due in no small part to Kearns' efforts.

She previously was a member of the old High Point school board, as well as the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

The county will honor

Kearns today by proclaiming Nov. 6 as Dot Kearns Day. She also will be recognized at a dinner this evening for winning the National Conference on Community and Justice's annual Brotherhood/Sisterhood Citation Award for her work to unite the community.

"Sometimes I get up and wonder if I'm going to read my obituary," Kearns joked about the accolades and recognitions she has received since announcing her retirement from public life.

Kearns' interest in politics grew out of her experiences growing up in diverse but intensely segregated High Point of the 1940s and 1950s. Kearns recalls walking with her father to African American neighborhoods as he collected debts for the insurance company he worked for. She remembers how kind and welcoming the families were.

The comfort she found with going into those neighborhoods, shunned by others, would return to her after college.

Kearns left High Point to attend the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, now UNCG, where she studied social work. As a social worker Kearns went back to some of those neighborhoods she visited as a child and saw first-hand the inequity created by poverty and a lack of education.

"You know those children, who grew up in those situations, you know they were going to have a harder time in life," she said.

When families starting a private school for disabled children asked Kearns to work with them as a social worker, she jumped at the chance. At the time the public school system did not admit disabled children and the parents, some of whom were friends of Kearns, needed a part-time social worker to receive a federal grant.

The school became High Point Kindergarten for Handicapped Children.

Her work in the community was recognized a short time later when she was appointed to the High Point school board in 1972.

It was on the school board that Kearns found inequity again, this time in how schools were funded. Segregation was ending and city schools were beginning to fall behind in funding. Kearns saw an opportunity to change that.

In 1982 she ran for and won a county commissioner seat, becoming the first woman on the board.

Her platform included the promise to lobby for a study to determine how to resolve the funding issues.

"I didn't even know what a county commissioner did, except fund education," and that was all she had to know.

That study recommended merging the Guilford County, Greensboro and High Point school systems. Fighting for that issue would take up the next several years.

Bill Horney has known Kearns for most of her life. A longtime civic leader, Horney was the chairman of the High Point economic development organization when Kearns began working to merge the schools.

"She made it happen," he said.

The proposal had support among the commissioners but Kearns worked tirelessly to gather support among the city councils and in the legislature, Horney said. That dedication is something Horney believes best characterizes Kearns.

"With Dot it's 'what is best for our children,'" he said.

Kearns did so well as a commissioner that in 1990 a group of area Democrats surveyed and found Kearns had a good chance of winning a seat in Congress.

Kearns was faced with a tough decision: accept her party's call to duty or stay in Guilford County to see the merged school system through. In the end, her vision for a unified school system won out.

"I felt that if I left that issue it might die," she said. "I thought it was probably the most important thing I could do with my life."

But her work on the issue had made her fierce enemies and in 1990 she lost her county commission seat to Steve Arnold. That election also led to a shift in the county commissioners' stance on the merger - but it gained support in Raleigh.

In 1991 the issue passed.

A year later Kearns was elected to the first consolidated Guilford County Schools. In the years since, Kearns has served the Board of Education by heading the legislative committee and helping it tackle school health issues.

Her experience and knowledge have helped shape the board's direction. She also has served as a model for others on how to serve on the board, such as current Chairman Alan Duncan.

"I've learned (from Kearns) that it's important to understand the issue and understanding the issue is not just studying the issue but also talking to the people who are directly involved in the issue," Duncan said.

Kearns recognizes that she is stepping out of public life at a time when there is a renewed sense of duty for it among young people.

She has some advice for those who are willing to take on the burdens of elected office.

"First of all, have that vision of a better way and then have the persistence to hold that vision strong," she said.

As for what she'll do now?

Kearns said she intends to rest and refocus.

She wants to tutor elementary and middle school students and write her memoirs for her children and grandchildren.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com