From the Capital-Journal:
The
timing and opportunity both needed to be right to lure Topeka West principal
and USD 501 lead principal Dustin Dick out of education.
The
chance to join the family insurance business in Rossville, after helping West
and 501 navigate through an unprecedented spring, convinced Dick that now was
the time to make that move.
“We’ve
talked about this for a long time,” Dick said. “In fact, if I go back to my
first year teaching in 2002, my dad (Randy) kind of talked about it and I
almost gave up teaching and joined the business, but I decided it wasn’t the
right time.
“It came
up all the time. Dad would say, ‘Hey, some day I want you to come.’ He kind of
always wanted to have all his kids there, and now this just kind of seemed like
maybe the time was right to do something a little different.”
Dick said
that having the spring completely disrupted by COVID-19 played into his
decision.
“I think
not seeing kids every day and teachers every day here through the spring maybe
made it a little easier to decide to walk away,” he said. “When you’re a high
school principal, you always have something to be at and somewhere to go and
something you can do and it just consumes everything you do. That’s just who
you are.
“That
just kind of stopped for the spring and the spring’s usually really busy, so I
had a lot of time to think about it and thought, ‘You know, maybe it’s time.’
It just kind of seemed like the time was right.”
Dick, 41,
will join his father, brother Derek, sister Melissa Horagan and stepmom Karen
in the family’s multi-faceted insurance business.
“It’s
kind of an all-in-one employee benefit kind of thing, health insurance and
benefits,” Dick said.
But while
Dick is excited about the future, he knows he’ll miss his career in education,
which has included stints at Highland Park as a teacher, assistant principal
and associate principal as well as time at St. Marys, Eisenhower Middle School
and Seaman.
Dick has
been principal at West for six years and USD 501′s lead principal for three
years, in addition to being in charge of district athletics.
“I like
what I do,” he said. “I’ve got a good job, I’ve got a good place to work. It’s
just kind of worked out all the way. There’s been jobs that I thought I wanted
that I didn’t get and jobs that I got that I wasn’t completely sure I wanted
and everything has worked out really well for me.
“I
couldn’t have asked for a better career in education. I’ve been blessed. It’s
been a really good career and Topeka’s been great.”
Dick’s
final day at West will be June 30, and associate principal Colin Cathey has
been named interim principal.
Although
education is going through an extremely tough time because of the coronavirus
pandemic, Dick knows it will survive and thrive.
“Whether
it’s something with the budget or the legislature, it seems like there’s always
something in education that’s challenging, but one way or another it all works
out really well,” he said. “I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years and every
time we thought, ‘Oh, this will be the worst thing ever,’ it all works out.
“This
year we had something happen to us that nobody had ever experienced before and
all the administrators and the teachers came together and figured things out
and made learning happen for kids. We pulled it off and kids learned and they
finished classes and they earned credits and we still graduated kids. Everybody
finds a way and we make it work.”
