Seckman High School Principal Jeff Krutzsch will soon say goodbye to the only school district he has ever worked for and the school he has worked at for the past 20 years.
Krutzsch, 53, of Imperial will retire from the Fox C-6 School District at the end of this school year. His final day with the district will be June 30.
He said he decided to retire because of the way the Missouri public school retirement system is structured.
“When you hit benchmarks, you have to look at whether financially it is the right move and whether professionally it is the right move,” said Krutzsch, whose salary this school year is $157,280. “It is just a matter of all of those things came together this school year. It just makes sense.
“Also, I have led the building for seven years. I think the building is going to benefit from a fresh voice.”
Krutzsch started working at Fox C-6 as a Fox High English teacher in 1999. While at Fox High, he was an assistant coach for the school’s football, basketball, and track and field programs and worked with students to publish the school paper.
He became an assistant principal at Seckman High in 2006 and was named Seckman High principal in 2019.
Krutzsch is a product of Fox C-6. He went to Seckman elementary and junior high schools and graduated from Fox High.
“Jeff has served the district well over the years as a classroom teacher, and assistant principal and as his tenure as a head principal,” said Tammy Cardona, the district’s assistant superintendent of secondary education, who also is retiring at the end of the school year. “Mr. Krutzsch will be missed by many. When you have someone who has been a part of a building for 20 years, their experience and knowledge will be missed.”
Fox C-6 posted the open principal position on its website on Jan. 5 with a listed salary of $137,361 per year. The district stopped accepting applications Jan. 18.
Nathan Burch, assistant superintendent of human resources, said district officials hope to identify a candidate by mid- to late February to recommend to the Board of Education to hire.
“Seckman staff and community members will have the opportunity to provide input on the characteristics and traits they are seeking in the next principal of Seckman High School through a survey,” he said. “This feedback will be an important part of guiding the process of identifying the best candidate for the position.”
Cardona said it will not be easy to find someone to replace Krutzsch.
“It is a big task when you are looking for a replacement for someone who is taking with them 20 years of service, care and direction for one building,” she said. “This is one of the good and bad things about Fox C-6; our leaders love to stay, but with that we lose a lot when they leave. Mr. Krutzsch has built an amazing administrative team at Seckman High School, and they will be a tremendous support for the new leader.”
Time at Fox C-6
Krutzsch said he believes Seckman High’s trajectory has continued to rise during the past two decades, and he is proud of the level of student involvement in extracurricular activities at the school.
He said involvement outside classwork was nearly derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which changed how schools operated during his first year as Seckman High’s principal.
“Before I am even done with my first year as principal, I am in the middle of COVID protocols and all of that mess,” he said. “It completely changed the trajectory of my vision of where I could take the building. I was no longer writing the narrative. I was just reacting to the world around us, like every principal. When you have a vision of where you wanted to go and it is disrupted by COVID, I feel like to a degree it forever tarnished my leadership trajectory and where we were going to go.
“The exciting thing is, I feel we are two, almost three, solid years back into normalcy. What we are seeing is kids participating again. To me, the level of participation outside the classroom and connecting to our high school has improved since I have been here.”
Krutzsch said he is also proud to have played a role in upcoming schedule changes for Fox and Seckman high schools and other schools in the district.
Fox and Seckman high school students started attending four 95-minute classes every school day in the 2018-2019 school year. Each semester students have seven traditional classes, such as English or math, and one Ac Lab, a 95-minute period when students may get help from teachers.
The high school schedule has two types of days, an A day and a B day. Typically, on an A day, students attend four traditional classes, and on a B day, they attend three traditional classes and Ac Lab. Those two types of days alternate throughout the school year.
Next school year, however, there will be three types of days, which will allow students to attend their classes more frequently with shorter class periods on some days.
The change to the block schedule at the two high schools will coincide with all Fox district schools starting school one hour later on 25 Wednesdays next school year to allow teachers to meet in their professional learning communities, or groups that look at student data to determine if instructional changes need to be made.
“For me, it was really important that I helped the district see the need to move to a different schedule that I think benefits today’s learners,” Krutzsch said. “I have been a huge proponent of the late start initiative. We are way behind so many other school districts in implementing this. I think if you expect our achievement to keep up with other districts, we have got to be willing to do the creative things that other districts are doing.”
After Fox C-6
Krutzsch said he does not feel like he is leaving the district and Seckman High completely.
“Even in retirement, I will drive by this school every day,” he said. “Knowing I will no longer have a direct impact on Seckman High School will be challenging for me. I don’t know how to predict how that is going to feel. I am sure it will be emotional, but it is a natural part of life.”
He said he does not have concrete plans after retirement, but he hopes to work outside the education field.
“I am trying to start a small business, doing handyman work, general home repair work,” he said. “It is something I enjoy tinkering with. I will see if I can make a little bit of money doing that.”
Krutzsch also said he may try to coach sports in some capacity. Along with being an assistant high school coach, he also coached club soccer teams.
“It is something I have a passion for,” he said. “I will never be a varsity coach. At this stage in my life, I am not looking for that. If I can support young coaches and help out a program at the high school or club level, I would like to reignite that passion.”
Krutzsch and his wife, Christie, have two children. Their daughter, Malorey, and son, Landon, both graduated from Seckman High.
“I grew up in the Seckman valley,” Krutzsch said. “I went to Seckman Elementary. I went to Seckman junior high school. I am so fortunate that when the Seckman job became available, I felt like I was returning home to the school I always belonged at. It is fun to kind of end my career at the same place it started for me.”