Superintendent Hillyer announces retirement

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - Dr. Hillyer will retire after, completing 11 years with Klamath Falls City Schools providing a consistent vision that has resulted in many positive impacts. He laid the groundwork by setting clear direction and tone while elevating the importance of academic achievement.

Klamath Falls City School Board accepted the retirement request from Dr. Paul Hillyer, effective June 30, 2021, in their September 14, 2020 Board meeting.

"A major achievement of Dr. Hillyer’s tenure is the completion of an extraordinary remodel of Klamath Union High School. During the challenges (and there were many) of the KUHS renovation project, he never gave up,” said KFCS Board Member Mike Moore. We had what many times seemed like insurmountable problems, but he always rolled up his sleeves and made the tough decisions and even ruffled some feathers to find solutions that would allow us to complete this most difficult task. Because of Dr. Hillyer’s tenacity, our students now have a marvelous KUHS that is safe, has modern learning spaces, and is a school, which brings pride to our area. He led us from a successful bond campaign to putting the final touches on Klamath Union High School. I am proud to be part of his team.”

During Dr. Hillyer’s tenure AVID a rigorous, nationally recognized teaching and learning model that closes the opportunity gap by preparing K-12 students for college readiness and success became an integral part of students’ classroom learning. KUHS is the only AVID certified high school in the Klamath Basin, and 100% of graduates from KU’s AVID elective classes have been accepted into college.

“With AVID’s implementation, I appreciated the fact that I could sit with Dr. Hillyer, look at data and actually have so many "Shout Outs" for kids, staff, and parents,” shared former Roosevelt Principal Ruthie Kreiger. “He would come to Roosevelt and I always wanted Dr. Hillyer to see students in classrooms, highly engaged, working collaboratively, using the AVID strategies.”

Providing after school academic support and enrichment to students has been a priority for Dr. Hillyer, having previous experiences in what an after school program could mean for students and parents. KFCS under his tenure has been successful in receiving two five-year 21 st Century Community Learning Center awards, bringing over five million dollars of after school and summer activities and experience free for K-12 students.

His impact extended beyond the district’s building’s as his role was instrumental in creating the Klamath Promise whose mission is to energize and unify the community to improve the graduations rate and develop a culture of high expectations of student achievement and parental involvement with complete community engagement to prepare our youth for the future.

“Paul came to Klamath Falls before I became President at KCC. He welcomed me and together with others, we visited a school in Texas that made phenomenal progress in students' graduation rates and access and admissions to college through partnerships. This was the beginning of a strong partnership and collaboration between KCC and KFCS,” said, Dr. Gutierrez KCC President.

This partnership resulted in an expansion of KU’s dual credit classes at KCC and OIT. KU students can obtain both high school and college credits while attending KU. The KCC partnership resulted in KU’s Media Design certificate program. The Liberal Arts Academy and The Math and Science Academy with Oregon Tech are additional outcomes of this collaboration.

“Any time you have a superintendent whose guiding questions are about students and families, the district has its heart in the right place. Will this help our students is the question Dr. Hillyer asked over and over again as we together have bargained three contracts. He is instrumental in improving the relationship between KFEA and administration while maintaining a positive attitude often exhibiting a very funny, dry sense of humor”, expressed Maureen Lundy, President of KFEA: Klamath Falls Education Association.

“I have always appreciated Dr. Hillyer’s humor. We have been down in quite a few trenches together over the last ten years. I was super proud of him during the construction, there were times that we all wanted to throw in the towel or throw it at each other, but he remained calm as he always does and we made it through. Such an exciting process and the finished product, well I could show those pictures all day long. He never took any self-credit for the success of KU’s remodel, it was always directed to the contractors or the board, or the citizen review committee. He spent hundreds of hours poring over the specs and squeezing pennies till they would scream. Thank you, Paul, for all you have done for the children of Klamath Falls City Schools,” expressed, Lori Theros, KFCS school board member.

“The average superintendent’s tenure is about six years,” sites the Broad Center. Researchers also found that tenure was about three and a half years shorter in districts with the highest percentage of low-income students.

The work portfolio of America’s superintendents is increasingly diverse, encompassing not only student achievement but the diversification of student and staff populations, the explosion of technology, expanding expectations from the government, the school board, and the community, and globalization of society, reports AASA, the American School Superintendents Association.

The Board of Education is currently researching and interviewing potential education consulting organizations to assist with the search to hire Hillyer's successor.