Educator prepares
for second retirement

By: Philip Batson, Staff Writer

David Circle is ready for his second retirement, seeing as his first barely lasted one night.

After 49 years as a teacher and administrator, Circle, 71, is finally calling it quits the end of this school year. He has spent the last 11 years as the Blue Valley School District’s coordinating teacher for the performing arts.

“It’s been a good life,” Circle said. “I’m looking forward to the next chapter in the book.”

Circle said he never planned on being with Blue Valley for long. His original goal had been five more years, but once he kept working he could not find the right time to stop. He is finishing his six-year term with the MENC: The National Association for Music Education, currently serving as its immediate past-president.

Circle began teaching in 1959 in the Shawnee Mission School District. He helped open Broadmoor Junior High and in 1962 opened Shawnee Mission West as the band and orchestra director. Music education called to him due to a lifelong love of music and desire to help kids.

“I had this sense of just wanting to make a difference, of wanting to do something of value and of service,” Circle said.

Circle took a break to get his doctorate and taught band for a year at Ball State University before heading back to Shawnee Mission schools, where he stayed as teacher and administrator until 1997. At that time he took Kansas retirement from Shawnee Mission, but began working in Blue Valley the very next day.

He has been in his current position since 2001 and his wife, Patricia, teaches at Pleasant Ridge Middle School.

While he has passed through numerous eras and seen student electives and choices grow, Circle said kids are still the same today as when he began teaching.

“They still need to be respected, they need to be loved, they need to be valued and you need to let them know that you have high expectations for them and they’ll respond,” Circle said.

Despite working at the district office for the past seven years, Circle continued to with students any chance he got, including stints as guest director for a school band or orchestra.

“It’s invigorating,” Circle said. “Directing and working directly with kids, nothing can compare to it.”

Circle’s work, commitment and time have not gone unnoticed. The MENC, which has almost 120,000 members nationwide, recently named him a Lowell Mason Fellow. The award recognizes people who have had significant service and made contributions at the national level.

“I was quite humbled by it,” Circle said.

He has also been named the Administrator of the Year in Shawnee Mission; Blue Valley Teacher of the Year in 1997-98 by the Blue Valley High School Parents Club; has been inducted into the Kansas Music Educators Hall of Fame in 2002; and has a scholarship named after him at Blue Valley West for a graduating senior who is going to major in the performing arts.

Circle said he will miss the people he has worked with through the years, and most of all, his connections with students.

“How can you get that if you’re in business?” Circle said. “The kids here have great and high expectations of the teachers. They watch and listen and soak it up and you have to make sure what you’re doing is correct. Nothing can compare to working with kids.”

Contact Philip Batson at (913) 385-6065 or philipbatson@sunpublications.com.