Hallsville Superintendent John Downs looks back fondly as he prepares to retire

Hallsville Superintendent John Downs will retire from his beloved school district at the end of June, just before the completion of the new wing, resulting from a voter-approved bond issue.

It's one of the many highlights of his career he pointed to Friday in a retrospective interview. It has been a career that saw him overcoming challenges including district financial difficulties and there was the worldwide pandemic that saw school officials everywhere scrambling to make the correct decisions for students.

Downs, 53, started his employment in the Hallsville School District in 1997 as an elementary music teacher. He thought at the time that was a career goal, he said.

"I had no intention of becoming an administrator when I started as a teacher," Downs said. "It had been my goal since high school to become a music teacher. My participation in the arts, in band choir and in drama, were some of the most important experiences of my young adulthood in high school and so I wanted to continue that as an adult."

But five years in, a position opened for a lead teacher and his colleagues encouraged him to go for it. He did and got the job. Six years later, encouraged by colleagues, he got a job as director of curriculum and instruction. The next step was assistant superintendent, then becoming superintendent in 2016.

"And so all along the way it has been my colleagues who've encouraged me to move to the next thing," Downs said. "I've always appreciated that because to me, it's meant that they felt I could do the job and do it well, otherwise, they wouldn't encourage me to do so."

His start as superintendent was among his roughest period, he said.

"The district was in a challenging time," Downs said. "The budget was challenging. That, I would say, was probably the most challenging time that I faced making that transition that year."

Then in 2017, the voters in the district approved the first operating levy increase in 30 years. Voters approved a $7 million bond issue in 2018 and a $6 million bond issue in 2022.

"The two bond issues that we passed, which were the two largest in our districts history, one for the expansion at the primary school, and then this one, expanding the middle school and making improvements at the stadium were really important and very necessary for our district," Downs said. "You know, our assessed valuation is low for a district of our enrollment when you compare us with similar sized districts like Macon or Centralia. We have no industry and very little commerce. So it's a real challenge to for us to keep our facilities growing at the rate that our student enrollment is growing. And so those bond issues were really, really important to our district and we were very happy that our community supported them so strongly."

The operating levy increase allowed the district to get on good financial footing, he said.

"The other big thing was in 2017 when we passed the operating levy increase which was the first one that we had passed in 30 years," Downs said. "That was critical to turning around the district's financial position. And it's the reason why now we're in strong financial position. We still don't have all the resources that the district really needs, but things are better. And that's really been my goal for things to be when I leave to be better than they were when I started."

All of his decisions have been based on what he believes is best for the children, he said.

"I have really enjoyed my time as superintendent," Downs said. "I've really enjoyed the opportunity to work at this level where I'm tasked with ensuring that we provide the best quality education to every student. That's really my job. So I've tried to take that very seriously. And all of my recommendations to the board have been based on my beliefs and what will be best for the students here. "

Hallsville schools closed in spring 2020 when the pandemic hit, but they reopened in August, Downs said.

"That was a nightmare for everyone," Downs said. "There are no words to express how stressful that entire situation was on everyone. Not just here, everywhere."

All of society experienced great strain and trauma, he said.

"I really feel like we're still trying to recover," Downs said. "Honestly, our students responded better I think than the adults. You know it I think it was maybe more even more traumatic on grownups than it was on the kids because kids rebound. We did experience learning loss, of course we did. We shut down the spring of 2020, just like everyone else did. We were very fortunate that we found a way to come back from school the following fall and stayed open the entire time, except for we had to close one building for a couple of days. Because we had, so many teachers have been quarantined. We didn't have enough to cover all the classes. We've been fortunate because the impacts on student learning were not as severe here as they were in other districts."

Student assessments are trending in the right direction, he said. The district received 83.8% of all points on its annual performance report, the highest of all Boone County districts.

A quarter-cent Boone County sales tax approved in 2012 to improve mental health outcomes for children also helped bring Boone County superintendents together, Downs said.

"From that came FACE and also the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition," Downs said. "When the Mental Health Coalition began, we started meeting with each other every month. And that really helped to solidify the relationship amongst the superintendents of all six Boone County districts. In addition to that, then the pandemic happened. We had a Zoom call with each other probably every day, every single day. You know, just talking through the situation and trying to network with one another and give each other suggestions on how to handle the issues that were coming up on a daily basis, you know, so for all the strain and trauma that was created, it also strengthened some of those relationships."

FACE is Family Access Center of Excellence, providing mental health support for children and their families.

The quarter-cent sales tax has benefited all children in the county in numerous ways and made Boone County the envy of the state and the nation, Downs said.

Hallsville has a family intervention specialist whose job is to work with families, provide them with direct supports and connect them with resources, Downs said.

It's impossible to estimate the impact the small sales tax has made, he said.

"I just can't even imagine what life was like before that," Downs said. "Those were needs that were just simply unmet before."

The Hallsville Board of Education in 2020 narrowly voted against moving to a four-day week, but repeating the vote in 2022, the board narrowly approved it. It has achieved its goal, Downs said.

"It's been a great experience," Downs said of the four-day week. "I've not heard one single complaint from a resident in the last two years and most importantly, the number of teachers leaving has decreased and the number of applicants, especially the number of experienced applicants, that we're receiving for positions has increased. And that was the whole purpose."

Hallsville joined Harrisburg and Sturgeon school district with four-day weeks in Boone County.

He hopes to find some position in education in retirement, but he hasn't yet determined what it will be, he said.

"I think I have a skill set that can be useful in supporting schools and continuing to support students," Downs said. "So that's really my priority. I'd like for my workload to be a little bit less than a superintendent."

Tyler Walker, from the Higbee School District, will be Hallsville's next leader.

It's not typical for an educator to remain with the same school district for 27 years, Downs said.

"I have found Hallsville to be a wonderful place," Downs said. "It's been like my second family. The people who live here and the people who work here care about one another and take care of each other. And that's part of the reason that I've stayed here for almost three decades. It's a great community, and they are very focused on doing what's right for their children. And so you really can't ask for better than that, as an educator. So I really appreciated my time here and the support that this community has provided to me. It's been a wonderful, wonderful experience for me."

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on X at @rmckinney9

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Hallsville school superintendent John Downs prepares to retire