May 20, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
With the academic school year wrapping up so does a career for a local superintendent.
Elk City Superintendent Rick Garrison’s 32-year career in education concludes at the end of June.
Garrison, who started his career in education in 1989 at Garden City, Kansas, has seen stops in Alva, and Perkins-Tryon before receiving his first administrative role as the Assistant High School Principal at his alma mater, Elk City in 1998. His first superintendent position came in 2002 at Burns Flat-Dill City. In 2008 Garrison would accept the same position at Cheyenne Public Schools before returning to Elk City to take the superintendent position in 2016.
Garrison announced his decision to retire last December.
He recently expressed his gratitude to his hometown, saying leading Elk City Public Schools was his dream job.
During his five years as Elk City Schools’ Superintendent, Garrison has seen multiple capitol improvement projects that include re-purposing the old junior high building and relocating the Central Board office to that location, improvements to Big Elk Stadium, improvements to the Elk City Agriculture Farm.
But out of all of he improvement projects during his tenure – Garrison said there’s one that stands out over the rest.
Garrison’s official last day on the job is June 30. His replacement, Mike Sparks, will take over on July 1.
