Five Questions: John Jungmann

After a two-year stint as an administrator in the Kansas City area, John Jungmann is returning to southwest Missouri July 1 as superintendent of Springfield Public Schools. Jungmann, the superintendent for the roughly 11,500-student Liberty Public Schools, was named to lead SPS' 25,000-student district in March. He succeeds Norm Ridder, who was named in May as interim superintendent for Mehlville School District in south St. Louis County. Following Jungmann is Carol Embree, who served as the chief financial and operations officer for the Liberty district and is succeeding Steve Chodes as CFO for SPS. Chodes accepted the CFO post for EducationPlus in the St. Louis area.

Southwest Roots
"I was raised in Lamar. I graduated from high school there. Then, I went to do my bachelor's work in Joplin at Missouri Southern [State University]. I went back to Lamar to start my career as a high school English teacher and a coach. Then, I started my administrative career in Monett. I spent 10 years there as assistant high school principal, a middle school principal and then the superintendent for four years. The first year in Liberty, I was a deputy superintendent, and then I was promoted to superintendent my second year, so I only served one year as a superintendent."

Teaching Track
"I'm the first in my family to earn a college degree. I was the last of six kids. I had incredible family support to go down that path, but I was really inspired to choose education by teachers Ð high school teachers, in particular. When I started my career, my whole plan was to be a teacher and a coach and impact kids. Administration was not on my radar. Then, as I started my teaching career, I was encouraged by my building principal and fellow leaders to pursue my graduate degree. They felt I had the skill set to be an administrator. Over and over as time went on, educators have moved me forward in my career and encouraged me to try new challenges. As a superintendent, the bad part of the job is you lose some contact with the classroom on a daily basis. The great part of the job is you get to impact a larger percentage of the student population."

Ridder's Shoes
"I've been down a couple of times for three days at a time. I came for three days in April, and I just finished a three-day stint just to learn a little bit. É In general, superintendents in Missouri are fairly well connected. When there are openings, you kind of learn through the network of superintendents. We knew Dr. Ridder was projected to retire soon and move on, last fall, and then saw it advertised by the search firm. (Ridder) has always told me it was just time for a change. He has said he would relocate Ð he didn't know where - but he would continue to serve kids. My understanding is that his position in Mehlville is an interim position. I don't think it is something he's looking at permanently. (The Mehlville district) superintendent was just hired by Rockwood about a month ago, so instead of going through the whole search process, it was looking for an interim."

A Critical Post
"In my two short years in Liberty, I came to very much respect (Embree's) knowledge of educational finance and her leadership abilities. And it really excites me to have her join the Springfield team. I hated to lose Mr. Chodes, but he had an opportunity to pursue a different position. When that opened, I was highly concerned about who we would get to fill his shoes as it's a critically important position in the system. I'm very fortunate to have Carol join our team."

Advancing SPS
"Early on, I just want to listen and learn about the system. While I've been familiar with it from the outside looking in, as superintendent, now I have to really dig in and learn the system from the inside. I will be meeting with community members and stakeholders, leaders in the system and the board of education to try and get a good firm grasp on what we are doing well and where our opportunities for improvement are. Then, obviously, I will work with the team I have around me to continue to serve our kids and get better. The key for me is that whatever we are doing every day, we need to continually be working to do better, so that we are improving opportunities for our students."