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Education news and issues in the Ozarks.

Missouri Superintendent of the Year Goes to Springfield's John Jungmann

Springfield Public Schools
Dr. John Jungmann's first day as superintendent for Springfield Public Schools will be July 1/Photo credit: Liberty Public

The Missouri Association of School Administrators has named Springfield’s Dr. John Jungmann superintendent of the year.

The announcement came at the annual fall conference of the MASA and Missouri School Boards Association, which concluded Sunday.

Jungmann, who became SPS superintendent in 2014, is credited with moving the district forward through his community engagement and strategic planning efforts, among others. In a news release, it noted his focus on understanding and addressing opportunity gaps for SPS’s 25,000 students.

"I am honored to accept this award as recognition of the innovative work being done at SPS and would like to acknowledge the support of more than 4,000 SPS employees who work each day to make learning more engaging, relevant and personal for our 25,000 students," said Dr. Jungmann.

Jungmann will be recognized during the AASA National Conference on Education in New Orleans in March and will be considered National Superintendent of the Year.

Springfield Public Schools was also recently one of 19 new districts accepted into the League of Innovated Schools. This national organization of forward-thinking schools launched in 2011, and now includes 87 districts in 33 states. SPS is the only Missouri district currently in the network, which accepts new members once per year.

The League of Innovated Schools was organized by Digital Promise, which is an independent, bipartisan nonprofit organization authorized by Congress to accelerate innovation in education.

The district says it was selected from a competitive and national pool of applicants based on its leadership, evidence of results, innovative vision for learning, and commitment to collaboration.

League members are represented by their superintendent who commits to, among other things, participates in and supports efforts to addressing the changing needs of schools through collaborations with league partners and community.