Graduating With Honors

Educators Jim and Kathy Ritter Talk About Their After-School Plans

By Anita Neal Harrison

Photos By L.G. Patterson

Though no one would've known it at the time, the Columbia Public School district was a big winner on June 17, 1978 — Jim and Kathy Ritter's wedding day. Together, Jim and Kathy would go on to log more than 60 years of service to the district, with a passion for public education that is unparalleled.
Just look at what happened in 2008. Jim, then 71 and retired, received a call from the school board president asking whether he would consider returning to serve as interim superintendent when the previous superintendent announced her resignation two weeks before the start of school. Taking the spot would not put Jim in an enviable position. Teachers were upset. The public was furious. The budget was in shambles. And for all his time and trouble, Jim was offered $90,000. His response was thanks but no thanks — and he took the job for $50,000.
At the time, Kathy was principal at Rock Bridge High School. She knew the decision meant a lot of extra stress on Jim — and her, too, for that matter. Still, she supported Jim's return 100 percent.
"We could sit back and say financially, and for the time required, this is not a good decision personally or for the family," she says. "But he could do it, and he felt with his experience he was the right person and could help. In our relationship, we always support each other, and I said, 'If that's what you want to do, if this is your passion, then, by all means, do it.'"

That word passion comes up a lot in people's comments about Jim and Kathy and their service to Columbia Public Schools. So does the words loyal. Both Jim and Kathy spent almost their entire careers at Columbia Public Schools.
Jim started as a history teacher at Hickman High School in 1959. Besides four years spent as the dean of students at Truman State University in the 70s, he spent his entire career with Columbia Public Schools. Following 16 years as an assistant and then associate superintendent, he retired in 1991. His 2008 return was actually the second time he came back to lead the district through a tough time. His first return was in 1998. He had spent most of the previous seven years working with the Missouri Department of Secondary and Elementary Education and the Missouri School Boards Association. It was rewarding work and not as stressful as running a school district, so he thought long and hard before agreeing to be superintendent. He served for five years. Then he spent five more years retired before returning in 2008 to be the interim superintendent for one full school year.
Russell Thompson, who was superintendent all 16 years Jim was an assistant and then associate superintendent, uses one word to sum up what Jim contributed with his returns: credibility.
"Obviously, he had a great deal of experience, and with that experience he brought skills," Thompson says. "He exuded confidence, and that confidence was contagious."
Kathy, too, offered Columbia Public Schools leadership during a critical time. While she was assistant principal and then principal, Rock Bridge High School doubled in enrollment to its more than 1,800 present students.
Kathy began her career in 1975 as a math teacher at Jefferson Junior High. Between 1986 to 1991, she went to MU where she could teach just three days a week and have more time to spend with her and Jim's sons, Joe and Tim. In 1991, she returned to Columbia Public Schools. She became assistant principal at Rock Bridge in 1993 and principal in 2007. She just retired in June.
Both Jim and Kathy impressed the community with their professionalism and genuine concern for others. When faced with a challenging decision, Jim would not weigh the pros and cons in his office but would spend "a great deal of time talking to the persons who would be impacted," Thompson says.
"Jim has a great ability to listen and to assess a situation and then to respond," adds Jim King, a former Rock Bridge principal.
Kathy, meanwhile, has a way of making everyone feel important, says Jennifer Mast, one of Kathy's assistant principals at Rock Bridge, as well as one of her former students.
"She pulls people in because when people interact with her, they know they have every bit of her," Mast says. "She shows people she values their time and she values them."
Thompson adds that Kathy has "great faith and confidence" in young people and "set a high standard."
Kathy's "faith and confidence" found expression in Rock Bridge's "freedom with responsibility" philosophy, which helped Rock Bridge earn a spot on both Newsweek's and U.S. News & World Report's 2008-09 lists of the nation's most outstanding high schools.
As one might expect, both Jim and Kathy put in far more than 40 hours a week to achieve what they achieved. While the demands placed on them could have been a source of friction at home, both were too understanding of the other's responsibilities for there to be resentment.
"Jim and I have similar philosophies: Do what is right for the kids," Kathy says. "I may have had evening activities four or five nights out of the week and then a dance on Saturday. He would never say: 'You don't really need to go to that dance. Why don't you just skip this one dance.' He would never say that to me, and I would never say something like that to him."

Now, all of a sudden, the home dynamic has changed. With Kathy joining Jim in retirement this June, there's no lack of time together. Instead, these two independent, in-charge personalities are having to figure out how to share the same turf.
Both laugh when asked how the transition is going.
"Here's the problem," Kathy says. "He retired first. I have a message for all women. That shouldn't happen because the home has become his territory, and that's not right. I have projects going on right now, there are painters here, and I've really messed with his nest!"
Despite the adjustments, Jim and Kathy both see the slowdown as a positive change in their lives. They've already taken advantage of their new freedom with a trip to Quebec City in Canada.
"We left the day after my last day at school," Kathy says. "That was nice to go right then. We spent one whole week together, and we said it was a one-week trial basis to see how we'd get along."
The answer, it turned out, was beautifully. Both of them fell in love with Quebec City. They stayed at the Chateau Frontenac, "a museum in its own right," Kathy says, and spent much of their time just walking around, admiring the architecture, eating at "darling little outdoor cafés" and enjoying the offerings of street performers.
Further travel plans this summer include a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for a wedding celebration of friends, and past that Jim and Kathy don't really have plans, just ideas.
But looking ahead, one thing is certain. Regardless of where retirement takes them, neither Jim nor Kathy will soon lose interest in the welfare of Columbia Public Schools.
"I don't think the time will ever come when we're not willing to do whatever we can to support Columbia Public Schools," Jim says. "This community and school district have really been our lives, and we wouldn't change that."