Prairie View board votes to hire new superintendent

By Roger Sims, Journal staff

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

LA CYGNE – Joseph Hornback has been named the new superintendent of Prairie View USD 362. Following a two-hour-plus closed door session on personnel matters, the board voted on Hornback’s new post just before adjourning its meeting on Tuesday, June 16.

Hornback had temporarily taken over the duties of superintendent following the signing of the separation agreement between the district and then Superintendent Chris Johnson earlier in the month. Even before that vote was taken, Hornback put his stamp on the leadership by having the board approve a new organizational chart as well as presenting a draft of a chart he called “Meetings at a Glance.”

Hornback, who began his career in education 29 years ago teaching chemistry, physics and freshman science at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, was hired to be the Prairie View High School principal for the 2018-19 school year. Three years into the job, former district Superintendent Rex Bollinger began assigning him assistant superintendent and curriculum director duties, and it was part of his job to design the back-to-school plan following the shutdown for the Covid epidemic.

Shortly after Johnson was onboard for the 2024-25 school year, the board voted to have Hornback become a full-time assistant superintendent. In the assistant post, Hornback has been key in working with curriculum, evaluating test results, researching data and identifying district trends, and recruiting teacher candidates outside the district as well as cultivating teacher prospects from paraprofessionals and aides working in the district.

Earlier this year, the board did not act to extend Johnson’s contract through the 2027-28 school year. Extending contracts for administrators two years out is a common practice meant to give principals and superintendents, and directors a sense of job security.

Following an hourlong executive session at a special meeting on June 1, the board voted to accept a separation agreement with Johnson. Following the decision, the board voted for Hornback to assume the duties of the superintendent until further action by the board.

Johnson, who was the first woman to head the district, still had a contract through the 2026-27 school year. Unless an administrator in that position resigns, the options include seeing the contract through or the board buying out the contract, with the latter usually being chosen by the board. The Prairie View district has bought out superintendent’s contracts in the past.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the consent agenda that included a check for just over $7,400 that was reimbursement to Johnson for unused leave.

The separation agreement included the board paying Johnson’s salary plus health insurance costs and an amount equivalent to a KPERS contribution for six months, from July through December 2026, in a lump sum. The additional buyout package of about $79,000 will be paid in July.

Hornback’s proposed organizational chart he showed to the board on Tuesday had no assistant superintendent post listed.

Hornback was a finalist in the selection of a new district superintendent two years ago when Johnson, the former superintendent of the Crane, Mo., school district, was hired. Johnson was hired on a split vote by board members with some of those members saying privately that they wanted to hire Hornback.

The new superintendent credited both Johnson and Bollinger with making his tenure at Prairie View a learning experience. Although both Bollinger’s and Hornback’s experience was similar (teaching high school science and coaching early in their careers), Hornback said that Johnson, a former fourth-grade teacher, was instrumental in educating him on issues relating to elementary grade levels and early childhood development.

“She’s a hard worker, and she really cares about the district,” he said.

Bollinger taught him about the budget process, which will be very important as the district must approve a budget for next year this summer. Hornback also said the former superintendent handed over management of the federal title funds, such as reading, and with that he gained a great deal of experience.

That insiders view of the school district has helped him make decisions on what direction he wants to take next.

“I’ve looked at the procedures and the processes in place in the district,” Hornback said, adding that in some instances the district is “flying by the seat of their pants.”

“My goal is to put formal procedures and processes in place,” he added. “Once it’s in place, then you can kind of adjust it.”

Instead of hiring an assistant superintendent, the organization chart approved by the board on Tuesday had a curriculum instruction and assessment director, who takes on the tasks of curriculum development and gleaning data from state assessments.

Hornback said that job had already been posted. However, Board Member Brian Uphoff suggested that he might look to outsource the position by contacting Emporia-based Curriculum Leadership Institute, which offers consultant services.

He also has proposed shifting Kaitlin Jones, who now works as the districtwide technology integration director, to the newly created post of communications and student programs director, a position he said she was looking forward to. That post will largely promote Prairie View’s “brand” by promoting events at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels.

Board Members Brian Lueker and Heather Schull said they thought that creating that position was a positive step.

“It will really represent what’s going on,” Schull said.

The revised chart also gives board clerk and business manager Kylee Capp more authority to manage the office better, the superintendent said.

The board was unanimous in approving the new organizational chart.

The board also got more good news on Tuesday: the district’s annual insurance premium dropped about $38,300 for the coming year. Truly Insurance agency owner Christine Teagarden said the district received a discount from EMI, which their agency was able to negotiate.

The coverage includes about $5.75 million in the “Cyber Solutions Section,” which covers online fraud and cyber attacks.

Hornback said that coverage became important a couple of years ago when the district suffered a ransomware attack where the district was asked to pay to retrieve its data that was being held hostage.

The board approved the payment of nearly $397,400 for the 2026-27 school year, down from $435,600 for 2025-26.

As promised, at the end the meeting Hornback gave a preview of upcoming board meetings, including a special end-of-year budget transfer meeting on June 29 and the agenda for the July 21 meeting, which will include appointments and changes to student handbooks. The July 21 meeting will also include a tour of the high school-middle school-central office complex.