March 27, 2014 Volume 4 • Issue 20 $1.00 Send community news to gladstonenews@npgco.com
Be brief. Be bright. Be gone. Longtime Principal Dan Kahler says goodbye to Northland as next chapter begins in Florida By Amy Neal A man whose career has been devoted to helping young people cross the bridge from adolescence into adulthood is setting off down a new path of his own. At 88, Dr. Dan Kahler is leaving the Northland to move closer to his daughter’s family in Florida. The longtime school administrator for North Kansas City Schools said he was looking forward to “living where it doesn’t get down below 50 at night.” More than a generation of Northlanders have had Kahler as their principal. DK, as he is affectionately known, came to North Kansas City Schools in 1965 to open the district’s second high school: Oak Park. He stayed on as school’s leader until his retirement in 1986 — a
retirement that was interrupted so he could serve as the principal at both Winnetonka and North Kansas City high schools. When the district’s fourth high school opened in 2008, Kahler was again called out of retirement, this time just for the day, to be the honorary principal at Staley High School. He is the only person to have been principal at all four district high schools. Kahler said one of the more rewarding experiences he had as a principal was being named the Kindest Kansas Citian north of the river in 1990. A few hundred students from Winnetonka had nominated him for the honor. “It was so magical,” he said, remembering the combined effort of his students. Daughter Becci Rutledge
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said students of all walks of life admired her father. “He was loved by the kids he suspended and the top dogs of the high school,” she said. Kahler made a point of getting to know as many
students as he could on a personal level. He was not one to sequester himself in his office. “He was always with the kids,” Rutledge said. “He was always out in the building, because that’s
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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Dr. Dan Kahler, seated, reacts to a group of Oak Park High School alumni who arrived at his Northland home Saturday, March 22, for a surprise performance of the school song as a send-off to Oak Park’s first principal. He is pictured with, from left, daughter Becci Rutledge and Goldie Arnold, both Oak Park graduates, and Art Pfaff. Pfaff was vice principal under Kahler for many years.
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what was important to him, what defined him as a leader.” Kahler’s advice to someone just starting a career in secondary education is to essentially follow his lead.
“A lways remember you’re not there for the parents,” he said. “You’re not there for the teachers. You’re there for the youngsters, and you give KAHLER/Page A3
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