Jeffery Hill, the lab schools superintendent, announced last week that next year he will be taking a job in Morton District 709 as the superintendent. Hill has been with the lab schools for twelve years now, which includes seven years as the principal of U-High, and the last five years as superintendent. Hill has been in the field of education his entire career, assuming numerous principal jobs before his time at the lab schools.

“It was intriguing to look at a little bit bigger system,” Hill said. “But it was a hard call.”

Morton District 709 has six schools, and 3,020 students, compared to the lab school’s two schools and approximately 1,000 students.

There were many factors that played into Hill’s decision. Hill lived in Morton for six years while he was a principal at Tremont, and he has family in East Peoria.

However, that didn’t make Hill’s decision much easier.

“I’m going to miss the people,” Hill said. “The students, parents, teachers. It’s such a close-knit system, and everyone knows each other well.”

Hill has had a greatly positive impact during his time at the lab schools. Some of these accomplishments include the pilot of the one to one laptop initiative, initiating standards based grading, and keeping the lab schools ahead of the curve.

“We continued to grow and improve during my time here,” Hill said. “I said, ‘we,’ because it’s always a collective effort.”

Principal Andrea Markert, has worked directly with Hill for the past ten years.

“He’s a very professional person, and serious all the time,” Markert said. “Some of my favorite moments are when he surprises me by being unserious.”

As Hill moves onto the next chapter of his career, his presence at U-High will be greatly missed.