Mount Vernon Community:
Last evening, I completed my annual performance review with the Mount Vernon Community School District School Board. After thanking the Board for their continued support, I asked the Board to revise my current multi-year contract so that I may retire at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, after forty years in education. The Board honored my request, and thus the 2023-2024 school year will be my last as superintendent in the district. This is the timeline that my wife and I committed to back in the summer of 2021, and I am pleased that the Board has remained supportive of my work throughout the years.
In announcing my intentions now, I wanted to give the district plenty of time to find a suitable replacement who will have the honor of leading the district forward. I will do everything I can to assist the Board in finding the next superintendent, and will work hard to support the new person in the transition to the role (except of course when I am out golfing, taking vacations, sleeping in and coming into work at 10:00 a.m. and leaving at 2:00 p.m., etc.). I will work with the Board this summer and early fall to determine how best to move forward in the search process; and ultimately that process will involve many of you when it comes time to determine the characteristics you are looking for in a new superintendent, and to complete the interview process for the district’s new leader. Once that person is chosen I will always be available to assist them, but will also get out of their way so they can move the district forward in the way they feel is best.
So what’s next?! At the end of the next school year we will have been away from our native Nebraska for thirty years, and we feel it is time to return home to be with our families. We are both the youngest of our families, and we look forward to having more time to spend with them. We also plan on getting involved in volunteer work in the Omaha community, and I hope to mentor future educational leaders so they don’t make the same stupid mistakes I made on a regular basis. This means that a beautiful home with a pool in the desirable Stonebrook neighborhood will be available for purchase in the next year, so please reach out at any time if you would like to learn more about it. Did I say it has a pool and is in the desirable Stonebrook neighborhood that is walking distance from the world class Mount Vernon Community Schools?!
Serving as the superintendent in Mount Vernon has been the highlight of my professional career, and I could not have asked for anywhere better to serve in this role. It has been great because of the people, all of you, who have made it so enjoyable. I owe you so much for all you have done for me, and Mary Lou and I are so thankful for how you welcomed us into the community. We do not plan to be strangers, and look forward to coming back to Mount Vernon for a variety of reasons. I will also provide you with my contact information so I can be of assistance to you in the future if needed. But let me also state one other thing loud and clear: By this time next year, I am done making weather calls!
A Mustang Forever,
Greg Batenhorst, Ed.D.
“Dr. B.”