ShawneeDispatch.com

Shawnee Mission Superintendent Marjorie Kaplan said she thought about sitting back and relaxing after her retirement in July instead of taking on another job.

"I thought about doing that for about five minutes, but then I decided that since I had this offer I should do it," she said.

Kaplan will serve as the director of the newly created Beat the Odds Institute in Arizona upon her retirement July 1.

The institute's mission is to provide K-12 students with opportunities for success in the global economy.

Kaplan said she saw an advertisement for the position in an educational journal, but she didn't apply because it said the job started in January.

But they still found her.

"Someone nominated me and gave them my name, so they called me," she said. "It sounded interesting, so I said if the start date was flexible then I would be interested."

Kaplan's new position will take her back to Phoenix, where she worked in education for 24 years prior to moving to Kansas City in 1992.

Although she didn't grow up there, Kaplan considers Phoenix her hometown.

"I moved there when I got married in 1963," she said. "My husband passed away in 1980, but I stayed there.

"When I was a child, when I was growing up, my father was an engineer and my family moved around. I attended three high schools in four years. I never really had a hometown."

Her family also is located in Phoenix, so moving there will give her an opportunity to see her five grandchildren, she said.

"They are growing up, and I want to be there to see it happen," she said.

Kaplan said although she is excited to move near her family, she will miss the friends she made during her years as the head of the second-largest school district in Kansas.

"I have so many friends here and I love Shawnee Mission and the Kansas City area, but when you don't have family it isn't quite as good," she said.