TAYLORSVILLE — Dr. Wiley Doby entered an animated front office at Alexander Central High School on Wednesday afternoon.

Staff there had gotten word that Doby would become the next superintendent of Rowan-Salisbury Schools. They’re going to miss him.

“He gave me the chance to prove myself,” Principal Richard Armstrong said. “He wanted to get to know me. I appreciate that.”

Walking at the briskest pace, Doby chatted in his deep voice with teachers and students at Alexander Central who said they would miss him.

“There has not been a time when I couldn’t go to him if I had a problem,” said Dee Watts, a secretary in the school system’s central office. “He’s an excellent speaker, but he’s an even better listener. I don’t want y’all to take him,” she said, her voice squeaking through a smile between phone calls.

Doby’s involvement since 1998 in Alexander County Schools shows on the hillside just outside his office, where workers rush to finish six tennis courts by next week for the county’s only high school. Tennis players now have to drive 14 miles from the school to play.

At the 1,000-student Alexander Central, hordes of people are adding a new 2,000-seat gymnasium, soccer and softball stadiums, and a wing of 20 classrooms and science labs.

“It was sorely needed,” Doby said. “You need good facilities first and foremost, and then you need good teaching.”

All this $8.8 million in new construction was Alexander County’s alternative to building a second high school in the county’s quickly growing southern end bordering Hickory. Doby — who arranged three meetings around the county with residents to hear their concerns — likened the tense situation at the time to redistricting Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

“I was one who supported a second high school because I thought it would provide a better learning environment being smaller,” said Roger Brown, chairman of Alexander County Schools. “I still think it’s going to be a mistake down the road. But I think everybody in the community has really supported what we’re doing.”

“I think the county wasn’t so split as people thought,” Doby said.

Though Doby hasn’t formed any opinions yet about Rowan-Salisbury’s school redistricting, he says no plan will please everyone.

Doby also helped Alexander County plan a transition to middle schools from junior high schools. Starting next year, the county will switch from schools with grades K-6, 7-9 and 10-12 to schools with grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12.

During his tenure, Alexander Central’s test scores have risen steadily from under an average 50 percent in 1997-1998 to 64 percent last year. The high school also has begun expanding the courses it offers through a local community college.

“You don’t teach the tests,” he said. “We teach the curriculum, because the tests are based on the curriculum.”

Of course, Doby has played the other parts of superintendent. He defuses discipline problems that can pit parents against principals. He drives roads checking for ice in the wee hours of winter mornings.

To the amazement of some, he assembles hot dogs in the concession stand at varsity football games.

Doby shares waves with school bus drivers and police as he passes them in his car. He likes big trucks and trains, and as a teacher once took a class to the local N.C. Transportation Museum.

“I’ve always liked the Salisbury area. It’s a beautiful area,” he said.

A native of Forsyth County, Doby still wears his class ring from Wake Forest University, the college where he earned his doctorate.

In Alexander County, Doby has been involved in the local Rotary Club — though he had to miss a luncheon meeting Wednesday and settle for a McDonald’s drive-through because work kept him at the office. He has helped the school system raise money for United Way and a local foundation raise money for schools.

Doby — who started his post in Alexander County in July 1998 — is leaving his four-year contract there a year and a half early. He begins here sometime in January 2001.

Alexander County Sheriff Ray Warren said Doby was helpful with handling bomb threats at Alexander Central after the disaster at Columbine High School in April 1999.

“In my dealings with the school system, we’ve had the utmost cooperation,” Warren said.

“He’s good at delegating authority,” said John Watts, one who works at the Wal-Mart pharmacy in Taylorsville who knows Doby personally. “He’s very friendly, very approachable, but not one that seeks the limelight or headlines every week.”