A 34-year veteran of Mandan Public Schools will retire this month.

Lewis and Clark Elementary School Principal Shirley Reed is retiring, and Fort Lincoln Elementary School Principal Owen Stockdill is taking her place.

"My retirement plans are to take time to enjoy my surroundings," Reed said.

She wants to spend more time with family, travel, exercise and cook. She will stay in the area.

The Mandan School Board will consider her retirement resignation and the principal change at its board meeting June 18, Superintendent Wilfred Volesky said.

Reed started in the Mandan school district as a reading specialist at the junior high. She later became an elementary teacher at various schools in the district, and the last nine years she was principal at Lewis and Clark.

"It was a respectable profession," she said.

And, it was one with options that allowed her to do more than classroom teaching. Her goal was to teach all grade levels, which she accomplished, she said.

"I loved every bit of it," she said.

Her philosophy was to keep the focus on the students. She will miss seeing them every day.

Stockdill's move to Lewis and Clark was planned more than a year ago, when the board approved an elementary principal rotation for the retirement of Reed and Roosevelt's former Principal Tom Conlon.

Principal Bob Klemisch was moved from Custer Elementary School to Roosevelt when Conlon retired last year.

The rotation did not account for future openings or retirements beyond Reed and Conlon.

The opening at Fort Lincoln is already being advertised, Volesky said. The closing date is June 22.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune.com.)