Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : School Superintendent to Step Down : Education: Walter Swanson is leaving the William S. Hart Union district to assume a position in Missouri.

Walter Swanson shocked colleagues Thursday by announcing he will resign as superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District and take over a similar position in Missouri.

Swanson, 50, will become the superintendent of the Cass R-IX School District in Harrisonville, a suburb south of Kansas City. He said he grew up in that area and much of his family is still there.

“It’s a chance to be closer to home and friends,” he said. “That was my primary motivation.”

A resignation date has not been set. Swanson said he expects to remain here at the beginning of the school year to work out any problems, although he will travel briefly to Harrisonville in August “to help them get started.”

He has been superintendent of the Hart district, with about 11,500 junior and senior high students, since January, 1992. The Harrisonville district has about 2,200 preschool through high school students, plus several hundred more in a vocational technical school.

Swanson said he doesn’t mind moving to the smaller district because there is more opportunity to implement new programs there than in California, where severe budget cuts in recent years have impacted schools.

“The present condition of finances in the state makes it difficult to build new components of the American school, although it can happen,” he said. “The (Harrisonville) district, although smaller, is in position to do a lot of things.”

Swanson was hailed by Hart officials as a person who has presided over numerous improvements in his short reign, including the construction of two new schools, technology improvements in classroom and management facilities, and the establishment of a long-term strategic plan.

“I remember him as a person who had a vision and was committed to it,” said Assistant Superintendent Daniel Hanigan. “He represented change in our district.”

Swanson announced his decision to school district employees at a meeting Thursday morning, Hanigan added.

“I truly was surprised,” he said. “I didn’t know it was coming.”

Swanson grew up in Kansas City and was a teacher and administrator in the area, leaving temporarily when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He was appointed superintendent of the Poway Unified School District in the late 1980s before assuming leadership of the Hart District.

He is the third Santa Clarita Valley school superintendent to resign this year. Scott Brown resigned from the Castaic Union School District on July 1 to accept a similar position in northern California, and Troy Bramlett is retiring in September from the Saugus Union School District.