Hillsboro R-3 School District officials have agreed to expand a current position and add a new one.
The Hillsboro Board of Education voted unanimously May 22 to expand the technology specialist job and to create a new job for a teacher who will also act as dean of student conduct.
Ethan Gosling, the district’s current technology specialist, will have expanded duties beginning July 1, adding artificial intelligence (AI) integration to his job.
Gosling has been with the district since 2014, where he started as a paraprofessional at Hillsboro Elementary School, and he has served in his current position since 2015. He has a master’s degree in learning from the University of Missouri in Columbia.
Gosling said his current annual salary is $50,856, and in his new role, he will be paid $58,000 for the 2025-2026 school year and maintain the same benefits.
His new responsibilities include professional development for staff, implementation of AI tools in the classroom and collaboration with both the IT and curriculum departments to ensure secure, standards-aligned digital learning.
“I am looking forward to the future opportunities to come with AI,” he said.
Gosling said he will still be involved with some of the projects he’s traditionally worked on, but his new job will require an expansion of his current work and focus.
“This new emphasis on AI integration in the district will help our staff and students develop the skills necessary for effective and responsible AI utilization, preparing our students for the future,” he said. “I will focus on training and assisting staff with the ever-changing technologies and the best ways to implement them.”
Superintendent Jon Isaacson said that as AI capabilities expand, the transformative nature of AI tools will be similar to what people experienced three decades ago when the internet was introduced.
“Our students will graduate into a world where AI is embedded in nearly every industry and aspect of daily life,” he said. “As a district, we are committed to meeting students where they are and preparing them for their future.”
Despite AI’s integration into the classroom, Isaacson stressed that data privacy and cybersecurity remain a priority.
“This position will help reinforce those safeguards, building upon the proactive steps we’ve already taken, including the adoption of a district-level AI policy approved by our Board of Education,” he said.
New position
For the first time, the school district will have a hybrid teacher/dean of student conduct next school year. District officials said they will not hire a new employee for the job but will promote a current Intermediate School teacher who meets the qualifications to fill the position. That person will be based at the district’s Intermediate School.
“The individual’s primary responsibility will be teaching, and they will still have a class during the day,” Isaacson said.
He said the role was developed to find an innovative and cost-conscious approach to support student behavior and develop future leaders.
As a result of the Intermediate School’s expansion to include fourth-grade students, building administrators are pulled in many directions with multiple responsibilities, including student discipline, Isaacson said.
“We intend to provide teachers with additional, consistent, daily support for minor discipline issues,” he said.
Board officials said the potential candidate will have approximately one to two hours per day of discipline and supervision duties.
The teacher who takes on the new job will be paid a $6,000 annual stipend, in addition to his or her regular teaching salary. According to the district’s 2025-2026 salary scale, the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree is $44,500, but those with more experience and more education are paid more.
Isaacson said the position is now posted, and a successful candidate will be announced this summer.