USDDP superintendent to step down

DE PERE – The superintendent of the Unified School District of De Pere will step down after four years with the district. Dr. Chris Thompson made the announcement via press release Tuesday but gave the school board a heads-up on his decision Monday night in a closed-to-the-public executive session following a meeting.

Thompson’s last day is May 28, the day following De Pere High School graduation. Thompson cited his health as the reason. Thompson said he’s had polycythemia vera, a rare blood cell condition, for the past few years. One of its symptoms is exhaustion. “I’m tired,” Thompson said.

“Fatigue is something that I face a lot of with my situation; I just haven't been vocal about it prior because I didn't feel it was appropriate,” he said. “But now that I’ve made this decision, I would rather people know so that they can understand, if they ever see somebody else with a myeloproliferative neoplasm, what they're seeing because they're a rare blood disorder cancer and they're not well understood.”

In polycythemia vera, the bone marrow overproduces red blood cells, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It places those with the condition at high risk for blood clots and heart disease. Besides extreme fatigue, other ramifications can include bruising easily, thick blood, dizziness, and headaches.

“It's not a leukemia, although it's often housed in the leukemia family even though it's not; it's considered a myeloproliferative neoplasm,” he said.

He said he’s taking cancer medication for the condition, which he described as a chronic blood cancer.  Thompson has faced a series of serious scenarios. Two years ago, he underwent surgery for a foot problem, which resulted in sepsis and required another hospitalization for the infection.  Then last year, he underwent surgery for bilateral pulmonary embolisms. Thompson said he has kept the board apprised of his condition all along, and they’ve been very supportive of him and what he’s working through physically. Thompson said he’s made it thus far and will make it through the end of May.

“I just got to the point though where I know that the amount of time that I can make it is very, very, very —  it's becoming very tough now,” he said. “And rather than not face it, I chose to be upfront about it and state that it's not going to be possible for me, so let's move forward with this.”

School board president Adam Clayton said the board will discuss in the coming weeks who will serve in Thompson’s stead in the interim.

“No decision has been made at this time on how to proceed,” Clayton said. “Although we do not have a designated assistant superintendent as part of our organizational structure, we have several experienced, senior-level administrators that are capable to function in that role as the need arises.”

Thompson has been in the education field for 29 years, having graduated from St. Norbert College with a major in choral music and student taught in the Howard-Suamico school district. He taught for nine years, eight of them at Oak Creek High School. He moved up through the administrative ranks at the Racine Unified School District.  He started as an assistant principal in Racine for two years, served as an elementary principal for five and then as director of curriculum and instruction for the district for the next five years.

His experience there, he said, “is probably why I strongly identify with urban education and feel so deep about it and why it's important that we understand what goes on in our schools.”

He then moved on to Rosholt, where he was assistant superintendent and elementary principal and within the same year became the district administrator/superintendent.

“I finished out that year for them with that role and then continued on in the role for three more years after that,” he said. 

Then he ended up back in the city of his undergraduate alma mater, De Pere.

“I've been so fortunate and blessed to work with amazing staff members, dedicated students, and just caring family members and community members that I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my career, so for that I am really thankful,” he said. “And I just hope that I was able to give them what they've given me.”

He said the most important thing to him is to get his work done, but it’s getting tougher to do it in an eight-hour day. He said it was a difficult decision to step down.

“But all adults face tough decisions; we all have tough decisions in our lifetimes,” he said. “The key is not to run away from those decisions but to face them head on.”