Southeastern extends leaders' contracts

CHILLICOTHE - Two key members of the Southeastern Local Schools' district leadership team have received a five-year contract extension.

Both Superintendent Brian Justice and Treasurer Phil Hartman each still had another year left on their existing contracts when the board of education recently voted on the extension, meaning they are now under contract through the 2022-23 school year. The board approved the extension by a 4-1 vote, with board member Steve Eldridge voting against the move.

Hartman said the only change to the current contract is that the school district will pay the entire health insurance premium for both he and Justice, up from the 85 percent share the district picks up now. Salaries will remain the same, with Justice making just over $115,800 annually and Hartman just under $92,400.

During the pair's most recent annual evaluations by the board near the end of June, Hartman received nearly all "5" ratings on a 1 to 5 scale while Justice received mostly "5" ratings, with a few ratings of "4" and one of "3", the latter being tied to a request to attend more school extracurricular functions. Justice commutes to the school for work from his home in the Peebles area.

In the comments section of the review, the board praised Justice's efforts with the district.

The evaluations are made up a series of performance areas the board feels are important. The five board members in executive session each individually give a 1 to 5 rating for each performance area or competency, then those ratings are added up and divided by five to get the final rating for that area.

Justice said one of the things he's looking forward to with the extension is the chance to work on maintaining and improving school facilities so that "it looks like a brand new building that just got built every year." This summer, the district will be repaving and re-striping the entire parking lot, and it already has launched a LED lighting conversion project that has thus far converted outside lights and those in the gym and cafeteria to the more energy-efficient option.

"We're going to be looking at our boilers and our chillers," he also noted. "Ohio's weather is changing. Today (when temperatures were pushing 65 outdoors), this is tough to have the boiler running full-go. So we're looking at is it going to be feasible to put a smaller boiler in?"

He also wants to keep the district on top of changes in the state educational environment and continue working with staff to provide the appropriate curriculum and technology needed moving forward.