Ingram’s February 2023

Randy Watson’s grandmoth- er never made it to college. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate the opportunities it would create for her family. “She got all of us cousins togeth er once—I was the oldest—and she said, ‘You all need to go to college, and think about being teachers; it’s an honorable pro fession.’ That had a profound ef fect,” says Watson, the commis sioner of education in Kansas, steering K-12 policy in the state. “We were working class poor, not poverty poor, but there was not much money being raised

embarked on a journey across districts small and mid-size, in places like Tescott and Andover, rising through administrative ranks to become superintendent in McPherson. He might have retired out of that role, he said, but for a good friend—Andy Tompkins—who has served in roles that include education commissioner, Regents board member and interim university president. When Tompkins was preparing to leave the K-12 role, he encouraged Watson to apply. “I said I had no desire to do that—I had a great job, was compensated well, we had a great community, families and kids—but he bugged me and bugged me.” In November 2014, he was selected as commissioner, and is now tasked with overseeing accreditation for 286 public school districts and nearly 100 private and parochial schools. The thing that makes his job tough is the geographical diver sity. “The average, or median enrollment in public schools sys tems is about 500 in the district itself, so Kansas is extremely rural.” Districts like Wichita, Blue Valley and Olathe, with tens of thousands of students are absolutely outside the norm. But “wherever you live in Kansas, you tend to think of that place as what the rest of Kansas looks like,” Watson says, and if you do, you’re probably wrong. What people should now, he said, is that in Kansas, it’s not purely an east-west split—though that is an is sue—“It’s rural vs. suburban, like Johnson County, vs. urban like Kansas City, Kan.,” he said. Those three represent very distinct differences. What makes Kansas so interesting is the small pop ulation but a very large geography with different tax bases and different histories—it makes for really challenging work trying to establish policy for all these districts to adhere to.”

CHARLES TABER KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY RANDY WATSON KANSAS EDUCATION COMMISSIONER

by a single parent” in his native Coffeyville, Kan. “So I always knew would go to college and be a teacher. My grandmother’s inspiration did that.” But what to teach? Turns out, Watson was enamored with history—so much so that, when he was closing in on a degree at K-State, he learned that he wouldn’t be teach ing it unless he pretty quickly enrolled in courses in the school of education. That he did, and while in Manhattan, he built on an acquaintance with legendary basketball coach Jack Hartman, who had coached at Coffeyville, to chart his own coaching in terests—many a teacher in Kansas K-12 settings helps ends meet with coaching duties. Thus prepped for the real world, Watson

KANSAS CITY’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Nominations for both awards are due by Friday, March 31, 2023. Register on-line at www.Ingrams.com/Nominate Questions? Contact Dennis Boone at 816.268.6402 or 816.842.9994, or email Editorial@Ingrams.com.