Bill Bloss Reflects On 20 Years of Service to Guilford Schools
After a storied 20-year tenure on the Board of Education, including 14 as chairman, William Bloss did not seek reelection this year, ending a career that over two decades oversaw tremendous growth and change, including the building of a new high school.
To put that time in perspective, Bloss’ twin daughters graduated last year from Guilford High School and have just started their freshman years of college. When he was first elected, they had not yet been born.
Bloss, who had only lived in Guilford for a few years before first being elected to the board, said he had a tremendous amount of gratitude for all the experiences and relationships he built during his time there, and also lauded many positive developments in the district that have occurred over the last two decades.
“I’m immensely impressed by the people I’ve worked with through the years,” Bloss said. “They have kept the goal of improving instruction at the forefront rather than any personal agendas.”
Bloss, a lawyer by trade, had never served on an elected board when a friend lobbied him to run way back in 1999. Not having children at the time, Bloss said part of his motivation was an understanding of how important a school district is to every single resident of a town.
“I think I accepted that the quality of schools is probably the single largest reason people relocate to a town or stay in a town...it seemed to me that Guilford had a great system, but [it] could be even better,” he said.
This attitude—that any service he could render to his town’s schools was improvement for every person living in Guilford—led Bloss for the next 20 years, as the district has continued to grow its accomplishments and reputation.
One perspective that Bloss said he felt he was particularly suited to bring to Guilford’s schools came from his background in legal practice.
“Lawyers, by training, make decisions based on evidence,” he said. “[Public schools are] probably the only area of government where everybody has been a customer, if you will—everybody has had an education. And so people have anecdotal experiences with education and believe very strongly about the best ways to do things—what’s the best way to teach, what’s the best curriculum.”
“I have tried to...move on issues in the direction that the evidence compels, rather than what feelings or anecdotes compel.”
Upholding the already high expectations of Guilford residents while maintaining this commitment to data and evidence-based solutions is something Bloss said he was most proud of. He said that “undoubtedly” the district has been on board with that approach, and has grown significantly in its commitment to factual, researched decision-making since his early days.
Bloss cited another program that he said has born fruit during his tenure, that started about fifteen years ago. A presentation on a program called “professional learning communities,” a school model that focuses on teacher collaboration across disciplines to address universal challenges in teaching, inspired Bloss and the district to begin building a collective spirit in Guilford.
“Twenty years ago, classrooms were, by and large, silos—where every teacher went into [their] room, taught the lesson, and at the end of the lesson opened the door and the kids left,” Bloss said. “Now we try to be much more collaborative across classrooms, across teaching groups, across grades even...I think the increased collaboration is probably the single largest change I’ve seen.”
Bloss was quick to credit Guilford’s teachers, administrators, and other members of the community for their contributions, and driving these improvements and initiatives forward. When asked about relationships and politics during his long tenure, Bloss offered universal praise for his colleagues.
“I will say, this has been one of the most productive, collaborative groups of people I have ever worked with,” he said. “There has never been one time when I thought ego or personal ambition or political considerations overcame the desire to make sure that instruction was at the center of our mission. I have been immensely impressed with the people I have worked with through the years.”
Never was this more evident, Bloss said, than in the process of building a $92 million high school, which opened in 2015 “on time and under budget.”
That “tremendous bipartisan accomplishment” showed not only that Board members and school leaders were capable of working together on a complex task, but that Guilford residents understand the value of their town’s education system and are willing to invest the money and effort into their schools—commitments that Bloss said he certainly expects the community to carry on.