Superintendent Announces District Administrative Changes

On March 3 at the Shawnee Mission School District’s Legislative Information Series, Superintendent Dr. Gene Johnson announced administrative restructuring that will be occurring within the district in the next year.

Associate Superintendent for Elementary Services Bill Frick will be retiring on June 30, and the position left open. Debbie Pfortmiller, Principal at Hocker Grove Middle School, will become an administrator on assignment. She will be aiding elementary administrators and assume responsibility for daily operations, administrative evaluations and parent-teacher communication.

For the 2011-2012 school year, Hocker Grove and Indian Hills middle schools will have new school administrators. Scott Sherman, current principal at Antioch Middle School, will become the new principal at Hocker Grove. Principal Bonnie Welty of Hocker Grove will serve as the school’s associate principal. Mike Rasmussen who is the associate principal at Mission Valley will continue at Indian Hills.

Johnson said the decision regarding reassignments was made from a purely operational standpoint, and that budgeting was not taken into consideration when we were deciding who to move and who to reassign.

However Johnson said the changes would help drastically reduce operating costs.

“There will be a considerable amount of money saved,” Johnson said. “Currently there are five administrators who are unassigned, if they are not reassigned by June 30 their contract with the district will be terminated. We’ll possibly lose two administrators from Mission Valley Middle School, two from Antioch Middle School and one from Bonjour Elementary. We’re faced with multimillion dollar cuts for our third year straight, so the reassignments will definitely help reduce operating costs.”

In response to questions about his future with the district, Johnson said “I will not be retiring soon. I am employed by the Board of Education, I work with the Board of Education and I will continue to do so for years to come.”