Article: Changing minds and mindsets.(PROFILE: JAMES B. PHARES)

When James Phares arrived in Fairmont, W.Va., in 2003 to assume the superintendency of the Marion County School District, he was struck by a peculiar disconnect between the community and its schools.

Fairmont, once a thriving coal, railroad and manufacturing town, was achieving what so many other towns have tried and failed to do--reinventing itself as a high-tech center. But the 8,200-student school district 20 miles southwest of Morgantown seemed reluctant to fully embrace the digital age. Phares, who earned his doctoral degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, recalls being struck by the lack of technology at the first meeting of his leadership staff.

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