Lisbon and Springville Superintendent Pat Hocking is among the teachers and administrators retiring from the districts at the end of this school year.
Hocking graduated high school in Galena, Ill., and attended the university of Dubuque.
“When I first got into education, I was focused on athletics and sports, and started as a physical education teacher,” Hocking said. “When I first started, they offered a Phase III education plan, that paid for your schooling if you went for higher education, and I took advantage of that to get my masters from Northwest Missouri State university in Maryville, Mo. I got education that allowed me to become an administrator.”
Hocking got his superintendent certification at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
He taught physical education at Clairfield School District five years, then was administrator at Northeastern Hamilton Community School District in Hamilton County for 19.
He came to Lisbon as superintendent in 2013, and started sharing with the Springville Community School District in 2015.
“One of the things I have loved about this job is just watching the people in the districts I’ve worked at develop their skills as teachers,” Hocking said. “A superintendent is more a management position, so you watch a lot of the adults you’ve hired or work with develop into teachers that better the schools.”
The other big thing has been seeing development on improving school facilities, which Hocking also notes has a huge impact on any school district that makes those improvements.
Hocking said that education has changed primarily in the issues it has had to tackle in the past 33 years.
“We’ve had to be handling student’s mental health in ways we didn’t have to be doing 33 years ago now,” Hocking said. “We didn’t have to deal with some of these issues at the scales we’ve been dealing with before.”
Hocking also noted there is a lot more competition in schools, and pride in showing what districts are doing well.
When it comes to what he is going to miss next year, it is definitely the kids and people at both school districts.
“We’ve had a lot of successful students, both in the classrooms, but also in extracurricular activities,” Hocking said. “Our teachers work hard, and that’s also seen in the test scores our students show. That’s one of the items that will be discussed at Lisbon’s coming school board meeting, is how our district did in the last tests.”
Hocking did reach the rule of 88 in this past school year, where his age and experience has combined to reach that number.
With the early retirement package being offered by Lisbon this year, it seemed like an ideal time to take advantage.
Hocking said his ultimate goal is to travel more, but that might need to wait for a few years for his wife’s own retirement.
“I also have a long list of projects that I want to get through as well,” Hocking said. “I definitely want to be out of Iowa in January through April in the future, and not get trapped as indoors as we do during that timeframe.”
He also is looking forward to spending time with his children and grandchildren. His daughter and son each have weddings this summer.
“The biggest thing is I want to go back to being a man, instead of the man that everyone is looking for answers from on a 24/7 status,” Hocking said. “I really look forward to just taking things much easier.”
Some of his favorite memories have to be the bond issues and building projects completed at the schools he’s worked at in his tenure.
“Those improvements always make people in districts happier and lead to them excelling,” Hocking said.
His ultimate goal as a superintendent has been to leave both districts in a better place than when he first came, and Hocking feels he has done that for incoming superintendent Autumn Pino.
“I know there are some worries and concerns for schools in the immediate future, but schools have weathered similar crises in the past,” Hocking said. “I’m sure schools will be just fine after these rocky next years.”