Shawnee Mission superintendent to step down. District will start search for new leader
Shawnee Mission Superintendent Michelle Hubbard, who was recently named 2024 Kansas Superintendent of the Year, will retire after this school year.
The school board accepted Hubbard’s resignation during a special meeting Thursday evening. Hubbard, who was named superintendent in 2021, will serve the remainder of her contract through June.
“I am really just so thankful for this board and other boards of education that trusted me to lead and work with such amazing people over the last 33 years,” Hubbard said during the meeting. “The relationships I have been able to build are invaluable. And the memories made are, you know, just something you will never forget.”
School board members showered Hubbard with praise on Thursday.
Board president Mary Sinclair said in a statement that the superintendent has led “with a strong vision, boundless energy and deep purpose. She has emphasized the importance of high expectations for every child, and advocated tirelessly for all students in Shawnee Mission, and across the state of Kansas.”
Sinclair said the board will contract with a consultant to lead an internal search to select the next superintendent. The board plans to hire a new leader in February.
“We are confident that we have qualified internal candidates to serve as the next superintendent of the Shawnee Mission School District,” she said in the statement.
Hubbard has spent more than three decades working in education. Previously in Shawnee Mission, she served for five years as an associate superintendent and for a year as deputy superintendent. Before joining the district, she was superintendent of the Turner school district in Wyandotte County for seven years.
In 2021, she took over as superintendent following the retirement of Mike Fulton.
As Shawnee Mission’s top administrator, Hubbard led the district through the COVID-19 pandemic, making tough decisions on remote learning and safety protocols amid parent opposition. And she continues to guide the district through ongoing labor shortages.
School leaders credit Hubbard with success in growing the number of students who graduate with marketable skills helping them transition to higher education or the workplace. Before 2021, the district says fewer than 30% of students graduated with such “market value assets,” a figure which rose to 47% this past year.
Hubbard recently acknowledged the district has more work to do when it comes to addressing racism inside Shawnee Mission schools and committed to continuing to address inequities, after students walked out of class in protest of a pattern of racism and bullying at Shawnee Mission East.
Deputy Superintendent Joe Gilhaus on Thursday said of Hubbard: “The guidance, the dignity, the integrity, and the leadership that she shows is second to none.
“The problem solving skills that she has, it’s really quite remarkable. With the tough decisions, she always comes back to one thing: What’s best for our kids?”
