The Hillsboro R-3 School District will spend $94,814 less in administrative salaries for the current school year than it did during the recently completed 2022-2023 school year.
The district has budgeted $2,181,312 for salaries for administrators and professional contract employees for the school year that began July 1, compared with $2,276,126 in 2022-2023.
“Some of that cost savings is because we’ve had turnover with some of our longtime administrators retiring at the end of the last school year,” Superintendent Jon Isaacson said.
Those retirees include Heath Allison, principal of Hillsboro Junior High for 15 years; Scott Readnour, principal of Hillsboro Intermediate School for 19 years; and Jim Ramsey, assistant principal of Hillsboro High School’s Learning Center for four years and 22 total with the district.
“Having all that experience leave at once obviously has an impact on the salary schedule,” Isaacson said.
Two other retirements – Deb Spiller, the director of transportation, and Kim Jackson, the food services director – led to additional cost savings, he said.
“Any time we have an open position, we look at it, whether there’s a better way of doing things. That’s not just in administration; that’s in teaching, custodial and food services, whatever. We want to do what’s most effective.”
In this case, Isaacson said, the district’s Board of Education agreed to consolidate the two director positions into one, the senior director of operations.
Clay LaRue, who had been the superintendent of the Van Buren R-6 School District, was hired to fill the newly created job at a salary of $112,167.
Spiller was paid $69,841 in her last year, and Jackson $73,160, for a total of $143,001, or $30,834 more than LaRue is being paid this year.
“And there’s an additional savings in that we’re only paying benefits for one person rather than two,” Isaacson said.
Additional savings were realized when the assistant principal of special education at Hillsboro Elementary was converted to a non-administrative position, Isaacson said.
The moves allowed the other administrators to receive what Isaacson termed “step raises” similar to those given to teachers for earning another year of experience, although he said a few received more than that.
“We looked around and found that some principals in Jefferson County were making more than our associate superintendent (Melissa Hilderbrand), so she got what we could call a ‘market adjustment.’ We need to keep our valued employees. There’s a cost for turnover. Our strategic plan calls for us to be in the top 40 percent of similar-sized school districts in the St. Louis region.”
Hildebrand will be paid $135,315 this school year, up from $129,059 last year.
Isaacson, who is under contract through the 2025-2026 school year, will be paid $188,436 this school year, up from $171,598 during 2022-2023.
However, he said by mutual consent, he and the board agreed to reduce the number of his paid vacation days from 20 days last year to nine this year, a savings of about $8,000.
During the next two years of his contract, those nine paid vacation days will be cut to three a year.
“I’m not taking those vacation days anyway,” he said.
Isaacson is in his sixth year as district superintendent.
2023-2024 administrator and professional contract salaries
- Jon Isaacson, superintendent, $188,436
- Melissa Hildebrand, associate superintendent, $135,315
- Kelly Genge, chief operations officer of finance, $132,277
- Mark Groner, senior high principal, $120,085
- Matt Whitehead, executive director of special services, $115,870
- Cathy Freeman, primary school principal, $115,014
- Clay LaRue, senior director of operations, $112,167
- Eric Detweiler, elementary principal, $106,359
- Bill Murphy, junior high principal, $103,818
- Leslie Marchetti, intermediate principal, $102,076
- Chris Schacht, high school activities and athletic director, $98,736
- Kim Copeland, junior high assistant principal, $96,558
- Gary Drury, high school assistant principal, $95,832
- Amber Parks, high school assistant principal, $92,928
- Aaron Moore, director of technology, $90,677
- Amy Phillips, primary assistant principal, $90,024
- Billy Reece, high school assistant principal of Learning Center, $87,120
- Phil Jacquot, elementary assistant principal, $84,216
- Barry Ijames, intermediate assistant principal, $79,860
- Ray Bess, director of buildings and grounds, $79,720
- Jim Brooks, assistant director of transportation-driver supervisor, $54,226