The Missouri Association of School Administrators has selected Superintendent John Jungmann as the recipient of the 2019 Robert L. Pearce Award. A committee of peers selected him as the 33rd recipient of this prestigious award from among nominees from each of the eight MASA districts. The award was presented March 27 during a banquet at the MASA spring conference at Lake of the Ozarks.
Since becoming the leader of Missouri’s largest school district in 2014, Dr. Jungmann has focused on ways to ensure SPS’ 25,000 students are prepared to succeed by providing engaging, relevant and personalized learning experiences every day.
His philosophy of engaging students in their learning through project-based environments is a mindset that took root as a high school student when he was encouraged by a teacher to serve on the student newspaper. “Experiences are an essential component that helps students make meaning and connect classroom to life. This idea has resulted in the expansion of our Explore program, which ensures that students engaged in our summer learning program have weekly experiences outside of the traditional classroom.”
Dr. Jungmann has also implemented programs that provide all students, especially those who are under-resourced or under-represented, with equitable access to modern tools. Part of the push for technology can be seen in the IGNITE program which has equalized technology for all students grades 3-12; and because of this, in part, SPS is seeing improvement in all grades in the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) area of English Language Arts compared with state averages.
Communications and community engagement have also been a vital part of Dr. Jungmann’s leadership. During his first year as superintendent, he engaged in a 90-day listening tour of the district and community and from that experience developed the Envisioning Excellence process to further engage community members. A community task force on facilities, which began its work in 2018, is one recent example of the many ways Dr. Jungmann strives to involve and engage school district patrons.
Dr. Jungmann believes that the central issue facing Missouri public education today is the expansion of choice opportunities for students across the state. Jungmann stated, “Missouri districts must show they are ready and willing to innovate and successfully compete with those who would like to see public education tax funds flow to charter, private or for-profit virtual schools. Springfield Public Schools and more than 140 other school districts have positioned ourselves to compete by implementing the Launch project, which provides virtual course access to high-quality instruction created and developed by Missouri educators.”
Dr. Jungmann began his administrative career as a principal at Monett Middle School and eventually became superintendent of that school district. He left Monett to become deputy superintendent and then superintendent at Liberty Public Schools coming to Springfield.
He received his Bachelor of Science Degree from Missouri Southern State University. He earned his Master of Science in Secondary Education and Specialist in Education degrees from Missouri State University and his Doctor of Education from University of Arkansas.
Dr. Jungmann is a past president of the Missouri Association of School Administrators; a member of the American Association of School Administrators; and has served on the AASA Superintendent Certification Program. He has also served on the Education Research Development Institute.
Dr. Jungmann is active in the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the GO CAPS program, Community Partnerships of the Ozarks, Ozarks Regional YMCA and the P-20 Council of the Ozarks.
Jungmann is the 33rd recipient of the prestigious Robert L. Pearce Award, which provides a monetary award to the recipient and a scholarship for a Springfield Public Schools student.
Other nominees for the 2019 Pearce Award, including their school districts and MASA District, are:
Roger Barnes, Chillicothe R-II School District, Northwest
Robert Brinkley, Odessa R-VII School District, West Central
Kenneth Cook , Malden R-I School District, Southeast
Jacque Cowherd, Fulton 58 School District, Northeast
Eric Knost , Rockwood School District, Greater St. Louis
Kari Monsees , Raymore-Peculiar School District, Greater Kansas City
Patricia Thompson, Crawford County R-I School District, South Central
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