Jim Love, a longtime member of the Flowing Wells faculty board, stepped down from his place on Wednesday.

Love, 78, mentioned he was scaling again volunteer work in the neighborhood, although he deliberate to proceed commuting three days every week to his job as a respiratory therapist in Casa Grande.

“I really like working with my sufferers,” Love mentioned.

Love, who was first elected to the Flowing Wells Governing Board in 2000, mentioned he labored to assist at-risk youngsters and college students with particular wants.

The district, which incorporates neighborhoods close to Ina Street between Camino del Oeste and Shannon Street and stretches southeast to Grant Street and Fairview Avenue, has many pockets of poverty.

Love mentioned he was particularly pleased with the development of Sentinel Peak Excessive College, designed for struggling college students, close to the intersection of Thornydale and Ina roads. The brand new faculty changed a group of getting older modular buildings that “had an odor to them.”

“You may paint as a lot as you needed and alter the carpet, however that scent was nonetheless there,” Love mentioned.

Love mentioned he labored to assist underserved youngsters within the district as a result of “as a younger man, I had a extremely tough, unhealthy childhood.”

He recalled that after his dad and mom cut up up when he was about 5 years previous, his mom positioned him and his two sisters in a Houston kids’s residence for seven years. After that, his mom despatched him to Tucson to stay together with his father. However his father’s new household additionally fell aside and he was on his personal, homeless after his junior 12 months of highschool. He dropped out of Amphi and joined the Navy at age 19, serving within the Vietnam Conflict. When he bought again stateside, he earned his GED earlier than going to school.

“I’ve been by it,” he mentioned. “I perceive what it’s prefer to have a drunk step-parent who comes residence and beats up on folks. I do know all about that type of crap.”

Love mentioned that as a college board member, he stored a watch out for issues.

“You see a necessity, there’s bought to be a approach to maintain it,” Love mentioned. “It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with these youngsters.”

Former state lawmaker Ethan Orr mentioned Love appeared out for the scholars within the district.

“Jim did all the pieces he did for the scholars and he’d work with anybody on both aspect of the aisle to get it accomplished,” Orr mentioned.

Love, who acquired a Lifetime Achievement Award final 12 months from the Arizona College Board Affiliation, remembered as soon as surveying the 35 gamers on the varsity soccer staff. He mentioned solely seven of them mentioned they bought hugs at residence, solely three mentioned they’d dinner with their household at residence and eight mentioned they’d sufficient meals at residence to eat every day.

After he heard that, Love and his spouse began getting ready and serving meals earlier than soccer video games.

“She would feed them a meal earlier than every recreation,” Love mentioned. “We’d prepare dinner 157 meals every week.”

Love mentioned he determined to step down from the college board earlier this 12 months after a dialog together with his son whereas on trip in France.

“After 23 years and doing all of the stuff that I did and dealing with legislators up in Phoenix and getting payments handed to get more money for our particular wants youngsters and all this type of stuff, it was simply time to cease operating myself ragged and simply work my three days on the hospital every week and take my journeys,” he mentioned.

Pima County Superintendent of Colleges Dustin Williams has invited any
certified candidate fascinated with serving on the Flowing Wells Governing
Board to use to his workplace.

Anybody fascinated with serving ought to submit an affidavit of qualification and candidate appointment questionnaire by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13. Discover an software packet at www.colleges.pima.gov/elections. Candidates can flip within the packet on the Pima County College Superintendent’s Workplace, 200 N. Stone Ave., or e-mail it to [email protected]. The seat can be on the November 2024 common election poll for a brand new four-year time period.