Kimball High School moves forward under new leadership

A new presence has come to Kimball in the form of Mr. Marshall Lewis who has taken over the Superintendent of Kimball Public Schools position recently vacated by Troy Unzicker.

Lewis comes to Kimball from Belmond, Iowa where he most recently served as the Superintendent of the Belmond-Klemme School District for three years.

"I'm an Iowa boy from the beginning. I spent a little bit of time in South Dakota, but for the most part I've been in Iowa my whole life," Lewis said.

As Lewis has never been to Kimball before, many would wonder what turned him on to applying for the superintendency in town. According to Lewis, it was a fellow superintendent in Iowa who encouraged him to look into positions in Nebraska.

"As I was looking through some things, I saw this Kimball position. I knew nothing about Kimball, not a drop. I just kind of looked at it, and just the description that they had, it was the type of community I was looking for. It was really a little shot in the dark, just interest," Lewis said.

However, as Lewis came out to conduct interviews, it was the interviews conducted by students that amped up his desire to become part of the city.

"Something that I put a lot of stock in when I'm doing interviews is if there's a student interview. This was one of the best student interviews I've had in a long time. Students were informed. Students were energetic. I was just really impressed with the level of the students as far as how they were vested in the process," Lewis said.

In Lewis' mind, as well as the minds of many educators, the school districts boils down to being all about the kids.

I'm a very strong advocate for kids. That's what we do here. Some times there are decisions that have to be made on the behalf of kids that aren't good for other people. That's a tough one. When it comes right down to it, is it the right thing to do for kids is really a much tougher question than you think," Lewis said.

Though through his 22 years in the education field he has moved farther away from daily interaction with the kids as he has worked his way from teacher to superintendent, Lewis makes it a point to step out of the office and interact with students on a daily basis.

"It's part of my daily routine to actively go find students and remind myself why I do what I do and what it is that really keeps me going. If I'm having a bad day, you know it, because I'm sitting in the cafeteria talking to kids. I want to go be with the kids and talk to the kids and get that rejuvenation. That's really what keeps me focused and gets me back to what I do and why I love what I do," Lewis said.

However, Lewis also has his mind on some of the issues to be dealt with in the coming school year. The issue at the forefront being the integration of West Elementary students into the Mary Lynch building.

"I'm coming into the post-West era. Others though that have had the two elementary system are accustomed to that and familiar with that. That's where they're going to see things differently and it'll be different for them. But the staff is optimistic. They're positive and as long as they're positive, we're going to make this work," Lewis said.

Lewis also received advice and assistance from former superintendent Troy Unzicker, who he was able to work with in Unzicker's last week on the job.

"We talked all kind of advice. He's a fantastic man. He was very helpful. I came a week early and spent a week with him. We had a great opportunity to talk and walk through some things. He helped me bridge a lot of my deficiencies in knowledge of Nebraska. I don't know that I would have known a lot of those things without talking to him," Lewis said.

However, for now Lewis is just happy to be back in red and black, returning to the school colors that he grew up with.

"I'm very much looking forward to everything here. This is going to sound cheesy, but I am so happy to be back in a school that has red and black as their colors. My wife and I both went to a school was red and black and went through a whole rainbow of school colors after that. I really enjoy the black and red and the longhorn logo and the pride behind that. That's really kind of a neat thing," Lewis said.