After a three-month vacancy, Hill County again has a county superintendent.

Diane McLean, who teaches at Cottonwood Elementary School, was sworn in this morning to take the part-time position.

McLean said she will honor her contract and finish the school year with Cottonwood — which will likely lead her to performing double duties.

“That will happen, I’m sure, ” she said.

The superintendent position has been open since the first of the year, when Shirley Isbell retired from the position. She did not run for re-election.

Gary Pfister, who won the November election, announced a few weeks later he would not take the office.

McLean said her experience, 15 years in the area as a teacher and Title 1 tutor in parochial, middle and rural elementary schools, gives her a good idea of how the position works.

“I am acquainted with this office through those experiences, ” she said in an interview after being sworn in.

She said one of her focuses will be on helping teachers in the small, rural schools.

“I am hoping we can offer more support to those smaller schools, ” McLean said. “They really are on their own, as a teacher out there. They don’t have an administrator to help facilitate some of those issues they have to deal with. ”

She said it could be a difficult transition, but she has committed to the students, parents and administrators at Cottonwood to finish her contract there.

“I can't jump right in here and really dig into this office with the kind of hours that one would hope they could, ” she said. “So, first of all, I need to finish where I’m at and then wade into the backlog that’s here and hopefully ask the right people the right questions to finish that off. ”