Your MonCre Cooperative is a perfect example of how the system works in everyone’s best interests. Along with professional management and staffing, capable and interested board members study, scrutinize and steer the cooperative in the right direction. They do so on their own time, some donating many years of service to help makes good things happen.

One board member has spent over ten years doing just that.

John Kenneth Faircloth, 63, is a board member and Chairman of the MonCre Wireless Board of Directors. He was elected nearly ten years ago, and seated as Chairman in 1998.

John says he is very proud of MonCre’s entry into wireless. “It has been a very successful auxiliary organization. Following the sale to Pegasus (MonCre sold the satellite dish auxiliary division in 1998) we were financially able to award educational grants. MonCre awarded $50,000 to each of the four local schools. The money was used for much needed special projects.” Faircloth said. “This was a case where grants were made available for use right here in our community and schools. We couldn’t have found more important wish lists to fill than in our schools. Hopefully, there may be other occasions for grants in the future. We’ll be watching for opportunities like that.”

Since his professional field is in education, John is qualified to speak to its needs--funding being paramount.

John Faircloth grew up in Brundidge, Alabama. He is a graduate of Troy State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science and a Masters degree. It was also at Troy that he met Barbara Waller, to whom he has been married for 40 years.

In 1962, John took a coaching position at a private school in Florida, where both he and Barbara assumed teaching careers and began their family.

John professes to have always loved sports and was pleased to combine coaching and general school administration. He enjoyed his nine years coaching at Admiral Farragut Academy and other schools in Florida, but in 1971 he returned home to Alabama to accept the position as Headmaster of South Montgomery County Academy.
In 1977, John Faircloth was named as the Executive Director of the Alabama Independent School Association, an organization that oversees numerous independent and private schools in Alabama. With 64 schools from Florence to Mobile, he directs the full service, non-public corporation which includes consultation for school administration, accreditation procedures, curriculum development and student assessment. Though membership is voluntary, the organization serves some 20,000 students each year.
Experienced and well informed, his views on public and private education are well taken. He believes that education starts and stops with a ‘controlled behavior’ in a ‘controlled environment.’ He states that “we need to start a strong modification program that teaches children how to behave, and as a result, how to work with other people. With this developed into the curriculum,” he continued, “I believe we will gain. There will be students who will fall through the cracks, but for those on the ledge, a parent’s involvement is critical.”

Parental involvement has proven to be somewhat more intensive and more successful in the non-public environment. Faircloth states that, “although we have excellent public schools and public school teachers, there are some that are not so great. The non-involved parent must share in the blame when the results are less than acceptable”.

Faircloth is careful to point out that you simply can’t buy an education for your kids, there is work involved. He says it is a learning game not only for the kids, but mom and dad as well.

He acknowledges that the neighboring Georgia lottery plan for funding college scholarships (The Hope Scholarship Program) has been a good one for education in general, although he is not personally a proponent of a lottery proposition to fund it.

Reflecting on the cultural changes that he has seen in a lifetime of teaching, he notes that today’s child may be outstanding thanks to modern advantages. But, he says, today’s students are simply not as responsible as yesterday’s students. It seems that parents’ reins have loosened somewhat, and they lessen their expectations for their children. “Frankly”, he says, “Many parents accept mediocrity too easily. In our system, we require performance. In an era when peer pressure is high, the liberalism in television, radio and other media is setting the standards for children. There should be clearer visions and stronger values. Parents need to switch off the TV, the movies and the Internet to devote some real quality time to relationships with the youngsters. You can’t be the best friend; you have to be a parent.”

The Faircloth’s have two grown children. Ken, born in 1965, is a Major in the Marines, currently stationed on duty in the Persian Gulf. (See related story, Major Ken Faircloth.) Their daughter, Andi, was born in 1968 and graduated from Troy State with a degree in marketing.

Asked how the family deals with Ken’s presence in the war zone, John replied that they “simply cope with it. His mother is usually anxious---she’s a realist---but we all know that he is doing what he wants to do. It’s a life he chose, and she is proud of him. Our kids have good careers, good values. We are indeed a fortunate family.”

John commented on his and Barbara’s recent plans. “We retired together. Now we plan to do things when and how we want to do them. We want to spend more time being grandparents. That will, of course, require time and travel, which we will gladly give. I think grandchildren need guidance, too.”