Three area schools soon will see changes in leadership

After more than 100 years combined of working in K-12 education, three area superintendents soon will retire from the Jackson, Scott City and Oak Ridge school districts.

And their successors are preparing to take on the new roles, with two packing up their families and moving from southwest Missouri.

June marks the last month before retirement for superintendents Ron Anderson at Jackson, Diann Ulmer at Scott City and Gerald Landewee at Oak Ridge. John Link, Brian Lee and Adrian Eftink, respectively, will assume their responsibilities July 1.

Jackson

Ron Anderson

Nearly 50 years after taking a position as a high-school business teacher in Nebraska, Anderson is preparing to retire as superintendent of the Jackson School District.

He began his career in Nebraska, teaching for six years before moving into administration.

Anderson then spent 10 years as a superintendent in Nebraska and 13 years as superintendent in Liberty, Missouri. He came to Jackson in 1999.

Link, who will replace Anderson, has been superintendent of the Fair Grove School District, about 10 miles northeast of Springfield, Missouri, for nine years. He worked as superintendent and high school principal in the Hartville, Missouri, School District.

For Link, the move brings him closer to his hometown of Park Hills, Missouri.

He'll be joined by his wife and their youngest of three children, who is in fifth grade.

John Link

"A lot of the folks who are now leaders at surrounding schools are folks I grew up with," he said. "So, it's going to be nice to get back and get that camaraderie back with those folks. And when I look at Jackson, it's a great school district, a great community with great tradition. It's just exciting for me to get to that level of a school."

Link said he's also looking forward to living closer to Busch Stadium in St. Louis, but saying goodbye to Fair Grove is bittersweet.

He led the district's rebuilding efforts after a May 2009 derecho -- a long-lived, straight-line wind storm -- destroyed about half the high school.

Students were in class that morning, he said, but no one was seriously injured.

"The challenging part and the refreshing part was the way the community and school came together," he said of the days after the storm.

"We were able to have summer school a few weeks later, so we could have some kind of normalcy for our children."

The school was rebuilt, and the district received funding for a safe room.

"It is kind of tough leaving," he said, but added Jackson is similar to Fair Grove in it's a family-oriented community.

"We're looking forward to it and can't wait to get our roots planted there," he said.

Scott City

Ulmer is completing her 28th year at the Scott City School District, including 10 as a high school math teacher, five as middle school principal and 13 as superintendent.

Diann Ulmer

She will be replaced by Lee, who has worked as high school principal at the Diamond, Missouri, School District near Joplin for seven years.

He also worked in Rock Port, Missouri, as a principal for students in grades seven through 12 and has coached everything from basketball to baseball and football.

Lee earned his bachelor's degree in education in 1992, with a major in social studies and physical education at the University of Kansas.

Brian Lee

He earned his master's degree in educational administration in 2005 from William Woods University, and in 2008, he graduated from William Woods with an educational specialist degree.

During his time at Diamond, the school received four Distinction in Performance awards from the state.

He served as school safety coordinator and started a student assistance team to identify and help at-risk students.

Lee said he applied for the Scott City position because he was ready for the next challenge in his career. He'll move to Scott City with his wife and three children, ages 1, 3 and 6.

"I'm really excited about being superintendent and being at Scott City," he said. "I can't wait to get started. I've met a lot of great people already."

Oak Ridge

Landewee spent four years as the Oak Ridge School District's elementary school principal, one year as assistant superintendent and elementary principal and the past 12 years in his current role.

Before joining Oak Ridge, Landewee served five years as an elementary teacher in the Nell Holcomb School District, two years as the principal of Immaculate Conception in Jackson and two years as a principal in the Cape Girardeau School District.

Gerald Landewee

Eftink, who has been principal at Oak Ridge Elementary for the past 12 years, will serve as superintendent.

"I've been transitioning with Dr. Landewee for the past two months, as far as working with him about human resources and financial issues within the district, so it's been a pretty good transition," Eftink said. "Dr. Landewee has been in the position for quite a while and is a wealth of knowledge to draw from."

As principal, Eftink helped implement an intervention program in which teachers use data from benchmark tests to evaluate students' skills and build instructional units based on their needs.

In addition to giving children a boost when they fall behind, the program helps teachers identify students who are at or above grade level and tailor instruction to their needs, he said.

Adrian Eftink

Eftink said he's looking forward to continuing the programs the district has, looking at the professional development the staff needs and getting more involved with the community.

The daily interaction with students is something he'll miss about being principal, he said, but "I'm looking forward to working with the community and getting my feet wet in the day-to-day workings of trying to make the district successful."

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

3000 Main St., Scott City, Mo.

614 E. Adams St., Scott City, Mo.

4198 State Highway E., Oak Ridge, Mo.