Bissen Turns Down Harlan, Will Remain Glenwood Activities Director

After considering an offer from the Harlan Community School District, Glenwood Community High School Activities Director Jeff Bissen will remain in Glenwood.

During Monday’s GCSD Board of Education meeting, board president Matt Portrey announced Bissen had agreed to stay on in his position after the district increased his financial compensation package and offered further clarity on his duties moving forward.

Bissen, who has served as Glenwood Community High School’s activities director since 2012, will receive a $10,000 raise as part of that agreement. Bissen’s base salary contract for compensation and benefits for fiscal year 2023 is $110,858. That figure for fiscal year 2024 will increase to $120,950.

“We are excited that Mr. Bissen agreed to the terms of his contract, and we’re excited about the opportunities ahead to focus on the betterment of our student athletes and students involved in co-curricular activities,” Portrey said.

Bissen and his wife are both Harlan natives. Turning down a return home wasn’t easy. But at the end of the day, Bissen said, staying in Glenwood was in his and his family’s best interest.

“The process was tough because we had an opportunity to go home where we have family and friends,” Bissen said. “On the flip side, we had an opportunity to continue to make this our home which we have done for the last 12 years.”

Bissen is considered one of the top activities directors in the region. In 2020, he was named one of eight finalists – and the only one hailing from Iowa – for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Athletic Director of the Year. Bissen won the Iowa High School Athletic Director Association Activities Director of the Year for Southwest Iowa in 2017, the same year he was honored as the Southwest Iowa Wrestling Athletic Director of the year by the Wrestling Coaches Association. In 2016, the Iowa Girls Coaches Association awarded him its Basketball Administrator of the Year Award.

Harlan’s rumored interest in Bissen had circulated since the March 10 resignation of Cyclone AD Davis Pattee. Glenwood’s March board of education meeting brought out an overflow crowd of parents, students and community members to show their appreciation of Bissen and encourage the district to retain him. At Monday’s meeting, those supporters got their wish. More than three dozen in the gallery were on hand for the announcement, with some clapping following Portrey’s announcement.

“When it came down to making a final decision whether to move and go back home to Harlan, we kept coming back to the fact that we love where we live and there have been a lot of positives for our family to live in Glenwood,” Bissen said.