School district honors those who impacted community
When Bruno Raso worked in the Avonworth School District, he had a technique for remembering the name of every student who came through.
Granted, it’s a relatively small district, with fewer than 1,700 students, but remembering the names of more than 1,000 different kids each year for a career of 34 years can be a daunting task.
He would start small, memorizing the incoming kindergarten class. From there it was easy, but every now and then, a kid would have to jog his memory.
“Oh, I remember you,” he would tell them. “You were a little son of a gun!”
Now, more than 20 years after he resigned as superintendent at Avonworth, the district is inducting him into the inaugural class of its Hall of Distinction, along with four other honorees.
The idea began with the current Avonworth superintendent, Thomas Ralston, and a selection committee.
“We started thinking about people who would add value to the project,” Mr. Ralston said, adding that they wanted to recognize people from the district who have had an impact on the community and the world.
Mr. Raso wasn’t an alumnus, but he spent decades working in the district. He started in 1963 after returning home from two years in the army. He entered his career in education as a sixth grade teacher and worked his way up to superintendent of the school district in 1988.
“Sometimes they appreciated you for not being that smart, and they moved you up,” he joked.
Just one year after Mr. Raso started at Avonworth Elementary, Robert Schulz was walking across the high school’s graduation stage. He dreamed of coming back to work for the school, and there happened to be a job opening at the perfect time.
He returned after college to work as a health and physical education teacher, boys and girls basketball coach and athletic director. He spent more than 30 years with the district, earning a spot alongside Mr. Raso in the Hall of Distinction.
The experience was everything Mr. Schulz dreamed it would be, he said. “It was even more.”
The feeling for Mr. Raso was similar. “I always say I shouldn’t have gotten paid because I enjoyed the job so much,” Mr. Raso said. “And my wife said, ‘ Are you crazy? You have four kids!’”
The other members of the Avonworth Hall of Distinction’s inaugural class are the late James Knox, who served as Allegheny County controller for 20 years, and brothers John and Charles Lenzner, owners of Lenzner Coach Lines in Ohio Township and longtime Avonworth benefactors.
Both Mr. Raso and Mr. Schulz said their inclusion in the Hall of Distinction should serve as a reminder to today’s students who can grow up to one day inspire a community just as they did.
“I hope that hard work, dedication and positive attitude will inspire them to be even better,” Mr. Schulz said.
A self- described “dumb football player” in high school, Mr. Raso never thought himself to be smart, but considered perseverance his strength. Twenty years after he left Avonworth, he’s not memorizing students’ names anymore, but he hopes his own name may serve as inspiration for the generations who will pass through the halls.
“I hope they know they can do the same thing [ I did], because Bruno Raso wasn’t any genius of any sorts,” Mr. Raso said.
Nominations for next year’s Hall of Distinction class can be submitted through a form included in the district’s annual report. The report will be mailed to everyone who lives in the school district by October, Mr. Ralston said.