12 People You Need to Know in 2015: John Jungmann

It takes a lot to leave a destination job, but John Jungmann found a reason.

The new superintendent of Springfield Public Schools had moved to Liberty in 2012, first working as deputy superintendent and then superintendent.

“It’s a great district in a growing community,” Jungmann says of the roughly 11,500-student system.

He was there to stay – until the top job at SPS opened, and the Ozarks called him home.

A native of Lamar, Jungmann is the last of six kids and the first to earn a college degree. He credits family for their support and points to teachers who encouraged him to get his education and pursue teaching. His first job was teaching English and coaching. Administration was never his vision.

It was, however, the vision of Jungmann’s principal at the time, who urged him to get his master’s degree. Jungmann started to see how he could influence a greater number of students from the administrative side.

Three years after he began teaching, Jungmann was the assistant high school principal in the Monett R-1 School District, where he stayed 10 years, eventually serving as superintendent. Nothing prepares an administrator better than leading a 2,000-student district, learning every aspect of budgeting, Jungmann says.

Heading SPS was never on his radar until word spread Norm Ridder was leaving the post. Even so, Jungmann thought he was too early in his career for consideration to run Missouri’s largest accredited school district, and SPS didn’t have a practice of hiring in-state administrators from smaller districts.

Then he heard SPS might be open to an energetic leader with young children in school.

“When I started hearing those things, it was calling me,” says Jungmann, whose kids are 13, 9 and almost 3. “It’s got such a tradition of excellence if you look at its history.”

It was that history and SPS’ willingness to innovate through such programs as the K-12 International Baccalaureate, Academy of Exploration and the Wonders of the Ozarks Learning Facility that excited Jungmann. He won’t go for status quo.

“The schools our kids go to can’t look like the schools we went to,” he says.

Jungmann recently completed extensive listening-and-learning sessions to create a districtwide vision with input from the community and buy-in from teachers, parents and students. Financial sustainability is a focal point.

“Springfield loves their public education system,” says Jungmann. “They want it to get better. But they don’t just say that. They’re willing to partner.”