Third in a series of candidate profiles to be published Feb. 7-Feb. 16. Profiles are being published in order names will appear on the ballot.
Susan Provance knows this upcoming race for the Springfield Board of Education will be competitive. Provance has appreciated competition most of her life, and thinks the benefits of competition offer many different sorts of victories for participants.
“I haven’t waited until age 70 to find my calling in life,” Provance said. “I think my calling is to be a teacher. I didn’t make a fortune, unless you count the memories.”
Provance worked for 30 years as a teacher and coach — 26 of those years were at Parkview High School, where she coached girls basketball, volleyball, softball and tennis (girls and boys).
Before that, however, she was a student at Glendale High School when the school offered no official girls sports. She participated in “sports days,” which were opportunities for the high school girls of Springfield to face off in one-day competitions.
After Provance’s retirement as a coach, she didn’t stay from away from the sidelines for long. She taught classes at Southwest Baptist University’s physical education department, and also spent 12 years with the Springfield-Greene County Park Board. From that post, she got to expand other active opportunities for southwest Missouri’s kids, such as the Turkey Trot — a Thanksgiving 5k run/walk.
For her achievements, she was named to Springfield Public Schools’ Hall of Fame in 2015.
That belief is what keeps her going after a second retirement — she is part of a group that runs the Springfield Public Schools archery program, which has grown significantly over the last decade.
Provance said archery offers a unique chance for kids to learn about themselves while competing. As they develop their skills, Provance said they get to the point where she watches them coach themselves.
“It’s a sport that just about anybody can pick up and get access to the benefits of competition,” Provance said. “It’s the precise repetition. You can pick up a bow and I swear to you in five minutes I’ll get you to hit a bull’s-eye, but then we’ll move back 15 meters, and keep doing it.”
Motivation for running
That call to coach is what moves Provance to run for the school board. She said that service on the board would be another way to fulfill her life’s calling.
“I can be real passionate about the schools,” Provance said. “I have grandchildren coming up in them. I want the schools to always be successful.”
More importantly, she wants to help guide something that can help anchor a community’s future and develop opportunities for families to grow. She notes that it’s a shame when a lot of graduates leave the area to pursue other opportunities.
“I can’t be the only parent who loves having my kids here,” Provance said. “When my grandkids graduate, I don’t want them to say, ‘There’s nothing here, so I have to go.’ We should have things in Springfield that will give our kids a fulfilled life, but whatever careers they want to go into, they should be able to find it here.”
Strongest qualification
While coaching and teaching were her career calling, Provance said that her time with the Park Board has best prepared her to serve on the governing board for the largest public school district in Missouri. Her time there was spent organizing large tournaments and events such as the Turkey Trot, as well as working with community groups.
That included national tournaments for tennis and other sports, where the organizers would have a dauntingly small budget, yet turn around an event that affects the Springfield community’s economy to the positive.
“I got the opportunity to be involved in some really great activities that involved big numbers,” Provance said. “We would have big, national tournaments, with a budget that’s not much … then we’d have this many rooms booked in hotels, people buying gas, eating out, getting souvenirs. It was a different world, but it all came together so good.”
Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series in the Springfield Daily Citizen’s coverage of the April 2024 election for the Springfield Public Schools Board of Education.
