Six Months Until Retirement

I will be retiring in the 21-22 school year. My last date of work as the SGI superintendent will be Friday, January 7, 2022. If you’re wondering why I’m announcing my retirement so soon, it’s to provide time for the BOE to conduct the search for the next superintendent. Whenever a superintendent retires, the search consultant requests a six-month period in which to conduct a search. The BOE members met with Dr. O’Rourke on June 21, 2021 to plan the search process.

When I decided in 2015 that I wanted another big challenge before retirement and applied to Springville-Griffith Institute CSD, I didn’t really know what was in store for me. From an outsider’s perspective, I knew some of the struggles the district experienced with leadership. It never made sense to me, what I saw in the media, because I thought “that should be a wonderful district to lead.” In fact, Springville is a wonderful district. The community, BOE members, leadership team, faculty and employees are among the best I’ve ever known. I’m grateful for every positive comment, for every day of hard work from our employees, for a leadership team—including our amazing administrators, union leaders, and BOE members—who works together to do what’s right. I’m grateful for our students and families who are kind and thoughtful and well intentioned.

It’s been a rough year for all of us. If someone asked me why I’m retiring now, I’d be tempted to answer, “social media!” but the truth is that it’s simply the right time for me. I’ve had a fulfilling career in which I’ve been lucky enough to do meaningful work and to form relationships with some incredible people. We’ve righted the SGI ship and now I know that the next six months will continue to be about leaving the place better than I found it while passing the leadership responsibility to the next superintendent.

Personally, I’m looking forward to freedom. I’ve been on the clock since I was fifteen—a work ethic was the #1 thing taught to us in my family and it’s how we were valued. When my father passed away in March at 78, it confirmed for me that life is short, and I have so many other things I want to do before mine is over. I want to wake up without an alarm clock, drink coffee in my pjs, volunteer, travel with my husband and enjoy our grandbabies.

I’m so proud to be the Springville superintendent and will continue to do so with all that I’ve got until January 8, 2022. We’ve got much to do including rolling out the next capital project that will do more for our students than the last project.  I’ll have much more information on that at our July 6th BOE meeting, a public informational meeting this summer and on our conference days in September.