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Veteran Pasco principal Koenigsfeld retires from Schwettman Center

Several staff members have already made a pitch for their assistant principal to take over the alternative school.
 
Randy Koenigsfeld, right, has retired as Schwettman Education Center principal after a decade in the job. Guidance counselor Mary Jones is with him in this photo from a recent open house.
Randy Koenigsfeld, right, has retired as Schwettman Education Center principal after a decade in the job. Guidance counselor Mary Jones is with him in this photo from a recent open house. [ Pasco County school district ]
Published Oct. 15, 2019

Randy Koenigsfeld, one of Pasco County’s longest serving school principals, has quietly and suddenly retired from Schwettman Education Center.

His last day was Friday, after a decade at the 114-student alternative school on the county’s west side.

Koenigsfeld, who first joined the Pasco school district in 1987, was principal of Ridgewood High School for six years before moving to Schwettman in 2009. He kept his planned departure secret until it arrived.

Several of his staff members wrote to superintendent Kurt Browning expressing surprise at their principal’s “sudden” retirement. They called for a stable transition to the next leadership.

They asked Browning to consider promoting assistant principal Shawn Hohenthaner.

“We are a unique facility, with a special clientele, and are fortunate to have had at HSEC administrators with the right combination of talent, experience, and expertise,” science education director Henry Manzo wrote in an email co-signed by a dozen other teachers. “I have over thirty years of teaching experience, and have worked with a fair number of administrators, and truly believe that Ms. Hohenthaner has proven her capabilities, and also developed an exceptional relationship with our students, staff, and faculty.”

There is no job advertisement posted for the position on the district website. The administration is looking into its options, and could have a replacement selected by the School Board’s next meeting Oct 29, spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said.