Jon Isaacson will be the new superintendent for the Hillsboro R-3 School District, replacing Aaron Cornman who resigned in July.
Isaacson, 43, of the Hillsboro area is currently an assistant superintendent with the district and will take over the superintendent job on July 1, 2019.
He currently is earning a $117,000 annual salary, which includes a $7,000 stipend he got for taking on extra duties following Cornman’s resignation.
Isaacson likely will get a pay increase to go along with the promotion to the superintendent job. However, as of Monday, his salary had not been decided, said Board of Education member Beth Petry.
She said his salary and the length of his contract probably will be determined at the school board’s next meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19.
“Next meeting, we’ll approve the contract,” Petry said.
Isaacson has worked for Hillsboro R-3 for 11 years and has been an assistant superintendent there for the past four years. He and Melissa Hildebrand, the district’s other assistant superintendent, have headed up the district since Cornman’s resignation.
Isaacson said he and Hildebrand will continue to share the superintendent’s duties until June 30, 2019.
Thirteen people applied for the superintendent job, and the school board voted 7-0 in an Oct. 27 closed meeting to hire Isaacson, district officials said.
Petry said school board members had a deadline to fill the position by the end of January, but they wanted to hire someone sooner if possible in order to avoid losing a candidate to a different school district.
“Also, with the other applicants waiting, we didn’t feel it was fair to hold back a decision,” she said.
Petry said Isaacson was a good choice.
“In my general, working relationship with him, I feel he is honest and straightforward,” Petry said. “He will say the good, the bad and the ugly of a situation and now, let’s work on a solution.”
Lisa Welker, the board president, said Isaacson has performed well as co-leader of the district over the past several months, particularly concerning the recent discovery that the district’s Prop C rollback waiver had lapsed.
“He has proven himself since he has been co-superintendent,” Welker said. “We’re happy he will be part of our administrative team as the superintendent.”
Board member Jon Schuessler said the board interviewed three finalists for the job, and Isaacson shined.
“He gave a really good interview, in my opinion,” Schuessler said. “He’s dedicated to the district and that impressed me a lot. He said he’d stay with the district, whether we chose him or not.”
Isaacson said he appreciates the promotion.
“I’m excited to serve the district,” he said. “It’s home. I want to be a leader in my home district after working with the people of the district.”
Isaacson said dealing with the district’s Prop C issue, which will be on the April 2 ballot, is one of the biggest challenges he and Hildebrand currently face.
“Really, Prop C, as well as finishing up our construction projects tied to our ($12 million) bond issue (passed in April 2017) and focusing on student academic achievement,” he said. “Another one is focusing on our community and community patrons.”
Before Isaacson became an assistant superintendent at Hillsboro R-3, he was an assistant principal at Hillsboro Junior High for six years. Prior to that, he taught for 10 years in the Fox C-6 School District.
Isaacson earned a bachelor’s degree in history education from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill., a master’s degree in education administration from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, and a specialist degree in education administration and a doctorate in educational leadership from Missouri Baptist University.
He and his wife, Kelly, have two sons: Tyler, a 2018 Hillsboro High School graduate now in college, and Drew, an eighth-grader at Hillsboro Junior High.
Isaacson is the brother of Josh Isaac-son, the superintendent of the De Soto School District. The brothers are originally from Mondovi, Wis.
“I guess I came down here first, out of college,” he said. “I was down here and told (Josh) there was a job over in Fulton. He got that job teaching social studies. We ended up 8 miles away from each other.”
The Hillsboro school board hired Brent Underwood of the Missouri School Boards Association in July to oversee the superintendent search, agreeing to pay him 8 percent of the superintendent’s first-year salary.