A School District’s Journey to Excellence (ePub)

McNeal has received many awards and honors for his service to public schools, including being named the National Superintendent of the Year in 2004 by the American Association of School Administrators. In July 2005, he was appointed the superintendent advisor to the North Carolina State Board of Education, a post he held until June 2006. He is a member of a number of boards: WakeMed Foundation; Peace College; Golden Corral; Triangle New School; North Carolina Public School Forum; Education: Everybody’s Business Coalition; and Lightner Foundation.



Thomas B. Oxholm has been a vice president of Wake Stone Corporation in Knightdale, North Carolina, since 1986, where his responsibilities include finance, accounting, human resources, and risk management.

Oxholm is dedicated to service in the community, primarily in the areas of his church, public education, and healthcare. He was a Sunday school leader for teenagers for 30 years. For Wake County’s largest hospital system, WakeMed, he serves as finance chair on the board of directors, and he has served the WakeMed Foundation in fund- and friend-raising for the last 10 years, currently as chairman. He has been recognized as the area’s most influential business person in public education for the last 15 years. His credentials include: founder of the Wake County Business Education Leadership Council; Friends of Wake County, supporting the 1996, 1999, and 2006 school bonds; and chair of the School Finance Committee for the Wake Education Partnership, which published the first ever guide to Wake County Public School System spending—“Show Me The Money.” His recognitions include the 1997 Citizen of the Year for the Town of Knightdale and Wake Education Partnership’s 1998 Friend of Education for work with public schools. He also served one four-year term on the Wake County Board of Education. During those four years, he was paid a total of $47,000, all of which he donated to the Wake County Public School System. Tom also serves on the Board of Paragon Commercial Bank in Raleigh, chairing the Audit Committee.

He graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976 with a degree in business administration, concentration in accounting. He became a certified public accountant in 1979.