New Eudora superintendent excited at chance to expand sphere of influence

photo by: Submitted

Stu Moeckel is the new superintendent of the Eudora school district.

Although Stu Moeckel has been on the job as superintendent of the Eudora school district since July 1, he said he felt like his work really started Thursday when school doors opened for the 2021-2022 year.

“July and August are a little slow,” he said. “It really gets going with the start of school. Watching the smiles on students’ faces and their excitement, you can’t help but get caught up in it.”

In May, the Eudora school board selected the 39-year-old Moeckel from three finalists to replace departing superintendent Steve Splichal. Moeckel left a post as superintendent and high school principal at the Madison-Virgil school district south of Emporia to take the Eudora job. He previously served as principal of Victoria High School near his hometown of Hays, and was a teacher and coach at Victoria and Russell before moving into school administration. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fort Hays State University and is on track to complete his doctorate from Wichita State University next spring.

The move to Eudora appealed to him as a professional school administrator and as a family man, Moeckel said.

“It is kind of the perfect opportunity,” he said. “I guess the best way to say it is that it has all the opportunities of a much larger school with a small school feel. It affords me the opportunity to grow as a leader and expand my sphere of influence as superintendent in a larger district where there are more opportunities open to our children.”

Moeckel uses much the same language when talking of his move from the classroom and coaching to school administration.

“I miss the day-to-day impact with students,” he said. “What I’ve found is that as a principal and superintendent, I have a larger impact. It’s wider but not necessarily as deep.”

One further attraction was that the move placed his family closer to his parents, who now live in Topeka, Moeckel said.

Moeckel said the transition to Eudora went smoothly. The family moved into their new home July 15, and his three children — a high school sophomore, an eighth-grader and a fifth-grader — have started making friends with kids in the neighborhood, he said. His wife, Summer, is starting a new chapter in her education career as a fourth grade teacher at Broken Arrow Elementary School in Lawrence, he said.

His focus during the first month and a half on the job was on listening and learning tours of Eudora and the wider Douglas County educational community, Moeckel said. Among those he met with were district staff, the Eudora Educational Foundation, city leadership and his peers in other Douglas County school districts.

“The most important thing for me was to learn all about the great things going on in the community and learn the culture of the community,” he said. “It’s a progressive and welcoming community. There is a desire to improve and grow but preserve the traditions of the past.”

Eudora school board member Joe Hurla said Moeckel has shown early that he will be an approachable leader.

“He’s a natural fit for Eudora,” he said. “He has really embraced the idea of reaching out to the leaders in the community, as well as staff and parents. It’s been a good couple of months for him.”

With his move to Eudora, Moeckel is suddenly dealing with the concerns of a growing school district, in contrast to the more rural school districts of his past, he said. It is a problem he is happy to confront.

“With the exception of the larger cities, declining enrollment is the concern of all school districts,” he said. “There are not too many districts staying the same or growing. Growth in public schools is a good problem to have.”

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