BonnerSprings.com

Filling the hole left by someone else can be intimidating, but Joe Hornback, former Bonner Springs High School assistant principal, says he’s ready to take on the challenge.

Hornback is the new principal, taking over the position left by former principal Jerry Abbott, who retired earlier this year after 14 years at BSHS.

“I’m excited about it,” Hornback said of the 2010-11 school year, which started this week. “Having been here for three years already, it’s allowed me to establish some relationships within the building and the community.”

Since the time he was a young student himself, Hornback said, he has wanted to be an educator.

“I started out in college (majoring) in education, and it’s always been my interest and passion since I can remember,” Hornback said. “This is what I’ve wanted to do.”

Hornback, who has a master’s degree in school administration, has been moving his way up the education ladder since 1996, when he began teaching chemistry and physics at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park. He then moved on to Grandview High School, in Missouri, where he also taught chemistry and physics and served as the head football coach as well.

And just prior to taking the assistant principal position in 2007 at BSHS, Hornback taught those same subjects and was head football coach at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa.

Hornback’s ties to Bonner Springs, however, go just as far back.

He says he had been to the city many times prior to actually taking the assistant principal position, as his wife, Melissa, is from the area and is a BSHS graduate.

“We’ve spent every holiday and weekend it seems like in Bonner, (so) when the opportunity came up (to move here) … it seemed like a dream in a lot of ways,” Hornback said.

Goals for the coming year for Hornback include building on the freshman academy and the new sophomore academy that was started this year. But he said he doesn’t want to leave the higher grades out.

“How do we make the junior year and senior year of high school more applicable to life after high school — that’s something we’ve taken on as a challenge, to make the second part of high school more relevant,” Hornback said.

Another major goal for the year, Hornback said, was to make building-wide adequate yearly progress.

“That’s definitely a challenge and something we’ll work very hard towards,” he said.

As director of the district’s Education Foundation, Abbott still will be nearby for doling out advice or words of wisdom as Hornback navigates his first year. But Hornback said the foundation laid by Abbott already was a solid one.

“Dr. Abbott did such a good job for a long time … I learned a lot from him in the three years I (was assistant principal),” Hornback said. “Hopefully I can continue on a lot of the good things that he started and kind of put my own stamp on them … But that’s definitely a challenge. But I’m excited about it.”

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