Topeka High School principal to retire

TOPEKA (KSNT) - After 40 years of service to education, you could say Rebecca Morrisey has earned a well-deserved retirement.

Morrisey, who serves as the principal of Topeka High School, is set to turn over a new leaf in an announcement shared with students and their families on Friday, May 19.

"The purpose of this letter is to celebrate, but also to share personal news with our Trojan Nation which has become my second family. I will be retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year, with my official last day being on June 30, 2023. This decision has not been made lightly, and I could have retired some time ago, but as I look at what we have accomplished together and where we find ourselves today, along with my own family and the ages of my grandchildren, I know that this is the right time to make this move."

THS Principal Rebecca Morrisey

Alongside her imminent retirement, Morrisey celebrated some major accomplishments in her farewell letter. She said the graduation rate at TPS exceeded 90% for the third year in a row with a 95.5% graduation rate for the class of 2022. State and national qualifiers and champions at THS also reached numbers not seen since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in arts, athletics and activities. Finally, she said $8.4 million was garnered for postsecondary scholarships.

"It has been a tremendous honor to serve for forty years as a teacher, coach, and administrator, thirty-two of those in the K-12 setting, and the past fourteen in Topeka Public Schools. I am so appreciative of the superintendents and board of education members who hired me as an assistant at THS in 2009, chose me to serve as the principal of Eisenhower Middle School from 2011-2016, and who have allowed me the wonderful gift of serving these past seven years as the principal of Topeka High School."

THS Principal Rebecca Morrisey

A separate letter from USD 501 Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson states that Morrissey plans to spend more time with her grandchildren and family when she retires.

"Ms. Morrissey and I are planning ways for possible continued collaboration in the future as we have made tremendous progress in addressing equity issues through our work together on the equity council. I personally thank Ms. Morrisey for her leadership and for her willingness to guide scholars through the pandemic. We wish her a wonderful retirement as she enjoys spending more time with her grandchildren."

USD 501 Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson

Anderson said Morrisey's former supervisor and lead principal that oversaw all high schools, Dustin Dick, will be helping with the transition process over the summer in his current role as the principal of the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning & Careers (TCALC). Dick, alongside THS assistant principals, will serve as the primary point of contact for school matters throughout the summer.