Blue Valley Superintendent Tom Trigg named sole finalist for Texas post

Blue Valley Superintendent Tom Trigg is bound for Texas after being named Monday as the sole finalist to take over the superintendent post for the Dallas-area Highland Park School District.

Trigg, 62, and the Highland Park school board must wait a mandatory 21-day period before signing a contract, but all signs indicate Trigg will move on after 19 years in Blue Valley, the last 11 as its superintendent.

“As much as I regret leaving Blue Valley,” Trigg said by phone from Dallas, “this is an opportunity that makes sense for us.”

He will be leaving a high-performing district of more than 22,000 students in Johnson County for another high-performing district, a third of Blue Valley’s size, in a north Dallas suburb serving some of that area’s most-sought neighborhoods.

“It’s a new challenge,” Trigg said.

The Blue Valley district grew steadily through Trigg’s tenure, adding 13 schools, including the district’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies, or CAPS — a high-tech center that has served as a model for school and industry collaboration throughout the area and the nation.

Trigg also established himself as a key spokesman for Kansas public schools as the Kansas Legislature struggled in its chambers and in courtrooms over education funding and other issues.

“In many ways, Blue Valley can be looked at as an outlier, being a large district and wealthy,” said Mark Tallman, associate executive director for advocacy at the Kansas Association of School Boards. “But under Tom Trigg’s leadership, Blue Valley was always working for solutions that benefit the state.”

The differences between Johnson County school districts and the rest of the state create tension, Tallman said, “but the spirit of Blue Valley and Tom in particular was to get together and work for as much common ground as we can.”

Trigg said he was in no way shying away from the budget and tax battles in Topeka. Certainly Texas will present its own challenges, he said.

If doors hadn’t kept opening toward Highland Park, he said, he would have happily continued at Blue Valley.

“I want people to know how much I love it here (in Blue Valley),” he said. “I’m not leaving because of anything negative or for any challenges dealing with finances.”

Trigg praised Blue Valley’s students, families, community and school board, which he said together have put the district in position to continue to grow and achieve.

His superintendent post “will be a really attractive job,” he said.

The CAPS program, which just finished its fifth year since moving into its $12.5 million building near 151st Street and Metcalf Avenue, marked the union the district made with its business community in advancing public education.

“He’s been a great advocate for schools,” Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach said. “He understands how schools and cities are working together … We’ll miss his leadership.”

The school board’s first order of business will be choosing an interim superintendent, though nothing will be decided before Trigg’s move to Texas becomes official after June 21, Blue Valley school board President Pam Robinson said.

Blue Valley’s current deputy superintendents are Sue Dole, who oversees educational services, and Al Hanna, who leads administrative services. Hanna announced earlier this year that he is retiring, and the district has hired current North Kansas City School District Superintendent Todd White to take his place starting July 1.

The board will announce public meetings to begin its search for a new superintendent, and the process will be “open and transparent,” Robinson said. She expects a wide field of candidates.

“We have so many positive programs in place and a strong national reputation,” she said. “I believe there will be a lot of interest all across the nation.”

Trigg, district records show, earned $307,765 in salary and benefits in 2014.

The next superintendent will face many challenges in navigating the kinds of pressures that have weighed on Trigg the past 11 years.

The Kansas Legislature has set a two-year window for the state to create a new funding formula for schools, even as litigation between districts and the state continues over constitutional mandates for adequate and equitable funding.

The next superintendent “will have to take the reality of our finances and marry them with the expectations of our parents and our community,” Robinson said.

“Dr. Trigg’s greatest qualities are in how he listens to people — puts himself in their shoes — always with an empathetic ear,” she said. “He sees the big picture, inside our district and outside our district.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Blue Valley Superintendent Tom Trigg named sole finalist for Texas post."