By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

In an interview with Hays Post on Thursday, Hays USD 489 Superintendent John Thissen said he resigned last week due to personal reasons.

Thissen presented his letter of resignation to the board Friday, Oct. 19. A letter went out to staff on Sunday. Thissen’s resignation was accepted in the personnel transactions at Monday’s school board meeting.

He will be serving out the remainder of his current contract, which ends June 30.

Thissen said he entered his resignation now because he wanted the school board to have ample time to find a replacement. The early notification should give the school board a broader applicant pool, he noted.

“I can tell you that a lot has happened on a personal level in the last two or three years,” Thissen said.

Thissen underwent treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his first semester as superintendent in 2016 and said he is still struggling with some of long-term effects of his chemotherapy.

His wife has not be able to find a job in Hays as the couple had hoped. Therefore, she is still living in Herington.

“Being apart for this length of time has been very challenging,” Thissen said.

In addition, both of his parents have had recent health issues, and he said he wanted to be closer to his parents to help them.

“All of this is happening and is going on with me trying to make it work with me feeling pretty isolated out here in Hays when all of the family is two to three hours east of here,” he said. “I had committed. I just finally decided I must live and work closer to where my family is.”

Thissen, 56, said he has not found a new job and has not ruled out the possibility of retirement.

Thissen said he hopes people will not associate his resignation with some of the challenges facing the district, including an impasse in teacher negotiations, acquisition of new property for a new home for the Early Childhood Connections projects and two failed bond attempts.

“That’s the job,” Thissen said. “Being a superintendent of schools, you have to deal with those particular issues.”

Thissen did say he regretted not being able to unite the school board.

“I feel in the last two and half years that I have been here, the one the thing I really have failed at for sure is a team,” he said. “My job is to make a team of the board of education. I would say that isn’t the case.

“I don’t feel bad about not passing bond issues, because that happens. I don’t feel bad about even negotiations, because that happens. Those are things you work through, but one thing I think is really part of my job is to create a team effort.”

The board has been split on its most recent facilities project, the purchase and remodel of the Oak Park Medical Complex. The board was also unable to come to a consensus on a third bond attempt, and in a split vote, postponed any further discussion on a future bond until next year.

The district had failed bond attempts in 2016 and 2017.

Thissen said he still hopes the ECC project at the Oak Park Medical Complex will be completed. The district is in a protest period on the financing. If the district passes that hurdle, renovations are to be completed by the end of June.

“I would hope to be able to say in June this project … even people who are against may look at it and go, ‘Wow. OK, this was good.’ I am very hopeful with that,” he said.

Thissen said he hoped in a few years, the community could look back at the decision to end negotiations with the custodians’ union, SEIU, and consider it favorably. He also hoped the process and information gathered during the failed bond votes will help his replacement with a future bond election.

“I have never been in a community that has welcomed me to a job as openly as Hays has,” Thissen said. “My leaving is not something that has been lightly thought about. Unfortunately, it is one that events in my personal life in the last two and a half years have not fallen in line with what my intentions were.”

Board member Sophia Rose Young wrote after Monday’s meeting, “John has been a great leader for USD 489. I had hoped to serve the district alongside him for my full four years on the board, but I understand his desire to move forward, and I wish him the best of health. He is committed to serving this district and community wholeheartedly for the rest of the school year.”

Board President Mandy Fox said at the school board meeting Monday she did not want to comment on Thissen’s resignation. She had not returned questions in a follow-up email as of publication of this story.