URBANA -- The children who entered kindergarten when Steve Summers was first elected to the Urbana school board will be seniors in college next year. So you can say he's had a hand in the primary and secondary education of a generation of Urbana students.

Summers is leaving the board after 16 years. In the April 5 election, he was narrowly defeated by just four votes by Paul Poulosky, who is now the school board representative for sub-district 6.

Summers is a man of few words, said Urbana school board President John Dimit, "but when he speaks, it behooves everyone in the room to listen very carefully to what he has to say.

"Steve was very engaged (as a board member). He made his points succinctly, and he also felt that if his points had been made by others, there was no point to repeat them," he said.

Dimit noted that Summers is a graduate of Urbana High School and that his father is a former staff member and coach at the high school.

"Steve had some unique perspectives formed over the long term, and he also had resources that he could call on to gain information, having been in the community so long and having been in the school," he said. "He still had a lot of contacts and friendships that allowed him to gain a full understanding of a lot of issues from all sides."

Dimit said Summers' background in the construction industry has been valuable as the district has considered how to improve its facilities.

Summers said he is proud the district is moving forward with facility improvements, including renovations of the high school athletic complex and the high school auditorium.

"I'm optimistic that our facility improvements are going to be very beneficial, not only in attracting additional students, but also serving the students we have," he said.

And he's proud of what he called a "relatively small" change that he and former Urbana board member Laura Haber pushed for years ago.

"We wanted to increase the number of social workers so every school had a social worker dedicated to the building," Summers said, noting that at the time, social workers were shared among several buildings. The initiative didn't pass initially, but administrators recommended the change the following year.

"Particularly with dealing with our student population, having a social worker at each building was absolutely essential in doing what we can to address the needs of students. And of the families," he said.

He's concerned that is something that could be reversed if the district faces more budget cuts in the coming years.

"We have no idea what the state is going to do" in terms of school funding, Summers said. "We're down to cutting people and positions. If additional budget cuts have to be made, more teachers will be cut and class sizes will go up.

"I think the district is going to be very pressed to keep what they have, as opposed to enhancing what they have. We're already trying to do more with less."

Among the changes Summers has seen during his tenure on the board is a decrease in the number of students in the district.

"Our student population has dropped significantly, by about 1,000 students. That's a major difference," Summers said. "I think as a district, since the equity audit in '98, we do a much better job working with our (low-income) students."

Summers is not a fan of the No Child Left Behind legislation, saying its benchmark for measuring student achievement isn't realistic. Despite that, "our administrators have done an outstanding job" in improving student achievement, he said.

"We have a lot more competition now for students in our area," Summers said. "St. Thomas More was not available when I first came on the board. Overall, Urbana needs to really compete with other schools for students, public and private, particularly when there's been fairly significant declines in enrollment."

His advice for new board member Paul Poulosky: "Board members represent all constituents honestly and equally. That's not just constituents in the sub-district, or any subset of constituents," Summers said.

"Most voters in our district don't have kids attending school," he continued. "As difficulties for the district come up, his job and the job of all board members is to represent all constituents and consider all the options they have available, not just the easy or popular ones."