WINDSOR – After just nine months on the job, Bertie County Schools superintendent Dr. Steven Hill is leaving to accept a similar position in Pender County.

Hill submitted his resignation at a special call meeting of the school board on Tuesday night at the Central Office complex here. He will remain in his current post until September 30.

The move comes just as the new school year is beginning. Pender County Schools boasts a student population of over 9,000 students, or about three to four times the number of students in Bertie.

“Dr. Hill did a remarkable job in turning Bertie around in the nine months he served us,” said Bertie School Board chairman Bobby Occena. “Financially, we’re in the black. We have some challenges as far as recruiting some more teachers, but he was well-liked and well-supported by the community.”

Occena said the board will meet in another special called session tomorrow (Friday) to discuss an interim superintendent to fill the post once Hill vacates it. He adds that they will reach out to the North Carolina School Board Association for suggestions on an interim as well as aiding the local board with a superintendent search.

Hill came to Bertie County in December of 2016 and was approved by the school board in January of this year. This came after he had spent two years working with STEM East in Greenville. Prior to working with that group, Hill built his career within an entrepreneur business and the North Carolina state government system. A key part of his work has been in the public education system, serving as a teacher, principal, and secondary education director in Jones and Lenoir counties as well as his earlier work with the NC Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

Hill counts among his accolades being named as a U.S. Delegate for the International Beijing Science competition in China, serving on the North Carolina team for the national STEM Funders Network, and receiving the International Association for STEM Leaders’ International Leadership Award for economic and community engagement. He maintains the work he did with STEM East also prepared him for presenting ideas in which he could put relevancy back into the classroom; showing students that what they’re doing right now is related to business and industry farther down the road.