One of Gwinnett County’s finest, Mary Kay Murphy, was awarded the Gwinnett Chamber’s Citizen of the Year Award at their 77th Annual Dinner February of this year. Her three daughters — Patricia, Emily, and Holly — as well as two sons-in-law, one grandchild, her husband’s second cousin and their spouse were all in attendance as Murphy received her award. She says, “We’re really blessed to have a table full of family members [in attendance].”
After retiring last fall, thus completing her 28 year tenure on the Gwinnett County Public Schools board, many — including former GCPS Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks and former school board member Robert McClure — reminisced on Murphy’s positive influence. Both Wilbanks and McClure agree, “Murphy’s main focus was always about what would produce the best outcomes for students in the long run.” Wilbanks says, “Dr. Murphy has really been a tremendous influence not just in the school system, but in the county. We’re fortunate that she was on the school board for as long as she was.” McClure adds, “You could always count on her to listen to both sides (and) to make an intelligent decision. We didn’t always agree on everything… but she was always the voice of sanity.”
Murphy’s connection to education is deeply rooted, and her journey as an educator has undoubtedly left her mark on both Gwinnett County and the state of Georgia. Not only did she teach at public schools in Georgia and California for nearly a decade, but she also worked at Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Morris Brown College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Oglethorpe University, and as a member of the Georgia Department of Education for the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). After earning degrees from Emory University and Georgia State University, including a doctorate in education administration at the latter, she embarked on a journey centered around giving back to the educational community; with a resumé like that, it’s safe to say her role on the GCPS School Board was inevitable.
Murphy’s positive influence on the GCPS curriculum is primarily focused on improving each student’s academic needs. Murphy said, “There was a good bit of concern in the beginning that the school system wasn’t rigorous enough. I think what we were able to do over the years was very much validated in terms of the rigor of the Academic Knowledge and Skills program (AKS curriculum) and the fact that it was available to all students.” This past year GCPS announced that the district’s graduation rate hit its highest in a decade, with 84% graduating on time. Murphy attributes this achievement as “evidence of keeping our eye on the ‘main thing’ [and that’s] the graduation rate. It’s the availability of the remedial and gifted initiatives bringing every student what the student needs.” She closes out her acceptance speech with the same thought many in the room — and within the county’s expanding education system — share, “[The program’s success] was many years in the making, and hopefully we can keep it.”
