When the home mortgage crisis exploded nationwide last year and the federal government shelled out billions of dollars to bail out banks, investment firms and car manufacturers, the subsequent repercussions forced many school districts around the country to lay off employees to make ends meet.

Beeville ISD was one of the few larger school districts that avoided having to reduce its work force.

The reason: school administrators worked with trustees and members of the community to draft a master plan that called for closing and consolidating some campuses, saving the district millions of dollars each year.

BISD Superintendent Dr. John Hardwick Jr. said drafting the master plan, putting it into action and saving jobs during a troubled economy is one of the legacy’s he’ll leave behind when he retires in May.

Hardwick announced his intentions to the public at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“I had already shared my plans with the board during an executive session but in the interest of transparency I wanted to tell the public so that if they saw me shaking someone’s hand on the street and asking about a job they wouldn’t wonder why,” he explained.

Hardwick said he has enjoyed working as superintendent of Beeville public schools but wanted to spend more time with his family.

“It’s been wonderful,” recalled Hardwick, who came to work at BISD in 2004. “The board’s been wonderful. The community has been wonderful. It’s fun to be a superintendent and it’s fun to be a superintendent in Beeville, but the superintendency requires quite a few hours and I want to spend more time with my kids and my grandkids, helping them with their homework and putting them to bed at night.”

Hardwick, who has spent the past 33 years in the education field, said he plans to continue to work after he retires from BISD.

“I don’t plan to plop my feet up on the desk or retire to the golf course,” he explained. “I’m still going to find something to do — what, exactly, I don’t know yet — but hopefully it will be well short of the 60-70 hours required of a superintendent each week.”

He said he hopes to continue championing improvements to school finance in Texas. Unfair school financing has had a negative impact on BISD, noted Hardwick, who serves on a statewide committee charged with improving school finance.

Hardwick said he will leave behind a school district that is seeing student test scores improve year after year.

“We are right on the verge of being a recognized school district and a recognized high school,” he said. “Even though the deck is stacked against us because we receive an unfair share of school finance dollars, which limits our programs, our faculty and staff has worked incredibly hard to make sure our kids’ needs are met.”

A bond issue passed two years ago that addressed aging campuses will go a long way to ensuring student success, as did the development of the master plan, he said.

The master plan called for fifth-graders to attend elementary campuses that have been recognized by the state for student achievement and the creation of a middle school.

The faculty and staff at the recognized elementary campuses are now sharing their successful education strategy with fifth-graders, who will become better students before they reach middle school, he explained.

“We changed the system, the educational process, to ensure that our students succeed, and it’s working,” he said.