There will be a change in the Junction City High School administrative team. USD 475 Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Eggleston has informed JC Post that James Neff has been named the Acting Principal. "We will post that position later this week or the early part of next week and start looking for another candidate to serve as the principal of the high school." Neff has been serving as a Business, Public Service and Hospitality Assistant Principal at the high school.
Merrier Tartt has been serving as the principal at Junction City High School. Eggleston confirmed Tartt is being reassigned, although a specific position must still be determined. "We're going to look at areas throughout the district that we believe skill sets will match, and give everyone an opportunity to work well together as we move forward."
Eggleston was asked about making the change in the middle of a school year. "This was just the timing of everything. I don't think there's ever a perfect timing. And this just appeared to be a good timing based on some of the things that we need to take care of as we approach the end of the year, as well as preparations for the start of the upcoming school year." Some of the things referred to by the superintendent included end of year school programs, events and activities along with making preparations for budgets, personnel and other actions that need to occur for the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
James Neff called the move into the acting principal's post "a great challenge. We're going to finish out the year strong, positive. We're going to pull this faculty together and we're going to finish out strong." Neff is originally from Decatur County in northwest Kansas and began his teaching career in 1998. He taught chemistry at Manhattan High School for 17 years.
Parents of JCHS students were notified of the change via the District's Skyward student information system on Tuesday.