Warren County R-III Superintendent Dr. John Long has resigned. 

His resignation is effective at the end of the current school year.

The school board accepted his resignation during a closed meeting Wednesday, Sept. 29. 

Long’s contract ends June 20, 2011. He has been with the district since 2004.  

Long’s announcement comes five months after the school board voted not to extend his current contract by a year and to freeze his salary.

Long is in the final year of a three-year contract. He currently is being paid $157,000 annually, a $6,000 increase from the prior school year. In Long’s first year in the district, he was earning $120,000.

In April, Long proposed keeping his salary at $151,000 for the next two school years — 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 — but the board voted 4-3 against offering a one-year contract extension.

Board members who voted against the extension said they were not opposed to revisiting the matter, but were dissatisfied that the vote was made at that particular time and were wanting to wait before taking any formal action on Long’s contract.

Those in favor of keeping Long remarked then that the district could have saved $12,000 by extending Long’s contract and that he deserved more time than the year remaining on his contract to meet goals set by the board.

In his resignation letter and part of a press release issued by the district, Long wrote, “it is rare in 2010 that a school superintendent gets to leave at the top of the figurative hill, but that is where I now find myself . . . My contract expires on June 30, 2011, and I continue to want what is best for the 3,000 students in our district. To that end, I am resigning my position . . .”

He further wrote that he will continue to base his decisions on what is best for the students and that he will help in the transition to a new superintendent.

In a press release issued to The Record, school board President Teresa Scott acknowledged the district’s progress made under Long, noting that “the district has renovated Daniel Boone Elementary and Black Hawk Middle School, passed a bond issue for construction of additional space, raised fund balances to secure levels and improved the accreditation level of the district.”

She declined to comment further on Long’s resignation, other than to say that the school board will begin the search for a replacement soon. She said board members have yet to decide whether to hire the Missouri School Board Association to conduct a search or to seek other options.

“We will be starting that process,” Scott said.

Long said he is proud of his tenure in the district. Along with building up the financial reserves that have helped the district during the current recession, facility upgrades have been made to lessen crowding and to air-condition all of the district’s buildings.

Also, the district learned last month it was receiving the Accredited with Distinction award, a report compiled from a wide range of academic performance marks. This was the first time the district had received the award under Long.

Prior to coming to Warrenton, Long spent two years as the superintendent in the Macon County R-I School District and was a middle school principal at Raytown Middle School outside of Kansas City. 

Long, who also teaches two doctoral program classes at Lindenwood University, has begun looking for other superintendent jobs.

“I am looking to accomplish what we did in Warrenton, just somewhere else,” he said.