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Weseman to step down as Tonganoxie superintendent

By Shawn Linenberger - | Mar 25, 2014

Shawn Linenberger

Tonganoxie usd 464 Superintendent Randy Weseman tends to his iPhone, a device he’ll be using this school year to send out tweets to inform school district patrons of school news on Twitter. Tonganoxie High School has a Twitter account and the district also has plans for a Facebook account.

Tonganoxie USD 464 Superintendent Randy Weseman has decided that he really is retiring this time.

Weseman, who retired as superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools in 2009, was hired in June 2011 as Tonganoxie’s interim superintendent.

He said Tuesday that he again would be retiring, effective at the end of June.

“It was a one-year gig that turned into three years,” Weseman said. “I’m going back out to pasture with my consulting routine.”

Weseman served as a private consultant to school districts after his 2009 retirement. Between administrator positions, he consulted districts in areas such as facility planning and human resources audits.

He originally planned to serve as superintendent one year in Tonganoxie, but agreed to stay on board longer. He said the Tonganoxie School Board urged him to stay even longer, but he said it was time to step down.

“I’m just at a point in my life at 65 and being in the business for 41 years, it’s kind of time for me to scale back,” he said.

Weseman first served in the Lawrence district in the 1970s and continued to work his way up in the school district before becoming superintendent in 2000.

He replaced Kyle Hayden as Tonganoxie superintendent after Hayden accepted an administrative position in the Lawrence school district.

During Weseman’s time in Tonganoxie, the district successfully passed a $27.2 million bond issue for a new K-5 elementary school. Construction has started on the building southeast of Tonganoxie Middle School. The successful issue was an about-face from a failed April 2011 bond issue that called for $26.9 million in improvements to the elementary and high schools and construction of an intermediate school.

Originally from Dighton in Western Kansas, Weseman said he would assist the district in searching for a new superintendent until he retires and after on a consulting basis if the board is interested.

“The painful part about leaving a job like this is day-to-day interactions with really good people and people who have become my friends,” he said. “That’s been the hard part for me.”

He said the superintendent position should be an attractive one for potential predecessors.

“It’s a growing community,” Weseman said. “Certainly our facilities are in good shape. I feel pretty good about what I’m handing off.”