Pat Meade taught students for 40 years and spent most of it at Talawanda School District.
From the time he was in high school, he knew he found his calling: teaching teenagers.
After attending Catholic schools and teaching at one for 10 years, he moved his career to Butler Tech. There, he worked with “at risk” students.
“ My definition of an at risk teenager is someone the adult world has not yet figured out,” he said. “I worked on how to help them tap into what they can do with their gifts”
Meade and his wife, Lois, a speech pathologist in the Talawanda district for 22 years, have been married 48 years and have six children together. Amid their home life and jobs, Meade and Lois lived with and cared for five teenage boys in the Bunker Hill Haven for Boys for two years. Meade’s dad lived in their home for seven years before he died. Their 6-year-old grandson currently lives with them full time.
“So, yeah, I’m 70-years-old raising a 6-year-old,” he said. “We both [him and his wife] have been pretty committed throughout our lives to caring for all people.”
Meade’s extensive work for the Talawanda and Oxford community earned him the Ohio School Boards Association Star Service Award for 2025.
The service award recognizes school board members who go above and beyond committing themselves to public education. Only 2 percent of the 3,400 Ohio school board members attain this award.
In 2017 the community elected Meade to serve on the Talawanda School Board. Two years later, he retired from teaching, but still holds a position on the board today. He sits as the chair of the OPD Community Relations and Review Commission, began the Butler Tech Connections Program and stands in as the alternate person for Talawanda’s congressional district for the Federal Legislative Advocacy Group.
He initially ran because the school board refused to hire a man applying for a janitor position. He thought the board treated people who worked specific jobs poorly and outsourced hires.
“ I wanted this young man to get a job,” he said. “And now, according to all administrators, he’s one of the best custodians in the district.”
Meade said he didn’t know he was getting the award. He found out about it like everyone else did: an email. He doesn’t like attention, so instead he hopes to shift the attention from the award outward.
“ If I can get good press for the district, I’m good.” he said. “Because, you know, you got the naysayers that act like everything’s falling apart and it’s not falling apart. This is a great district with great students.”
Holli Hansel, Talawanda’s director of communications and public relations, said she wants the community to acknowledge the significance of this honor.
“ I’m really trying to promote that he won this award, because it’s amazing,” she said. “It is that big of a deal.”
Meade wants to continue contributing to Talawanda the best he can.
“I want to emphasize that I think the leadership team and staff are doing a really good job,” he said. “I hope I’m helping our students the best they can and I hope as a board member any policies or budget decisions I make are helpful to the people doing their jobs.”
