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McDonald board hires new superintendent
By Mary Smith
McDONALD
McDonald Board of Education has hired East Liverpool schools superintendent Ken Halbert Jr. of New Springfield to be the new part-time superintendent of schools.
Halbert was hired Tuesday under a three-year contract, effective Aug. 1 through July 31, 2014. He will work 120 days per year at $350 a day.
Former part-time superintendent Barry Ronald Morrison retired effective May 31 after one year in the post.
His contract was for 80 days at $345 a day, but he worked more than those days and was given a $20 a day stipend by the board, effective April 4, for the additional days worked. His started Aug. 1, 2010, and his contract was to expire July 31.
Halbert said he is the kind of person who likes new goals but has been fortunate to be superintendent in East Liverpool, which has more than 2,500 students.
He added that he’ll work whatever number of days it takes to get the job done for the kids and the kids’ programs in McDonald.
Halbert and his wife, Kathi, have three grown sons and live on Springfield Road. He has been East Liverpool superintendent since 2006 and still has three years on his contract.
He previously served as superintendent of Wellsville schools from 2004 to ’06 and as superintendent of Bloomfield-Mespo schools from 2000 to ’04.
He has was principal of Boardman Center Middle School from 1994 to 2000.
At East Liverpool, he headed the district’s Ohio School Facilities Commission grant project for total project cost of $52 million, which was used to renovate the district’s school buildings. During his tenure as superintendent, a $2 million deficit was resolved into a positive five-year forecast within 20 months. He brought the district out of state fiscal emergency in March 2009 to a $14 million balance.
McDonald schools still are in state fiscal emergency, first declared in October 2009. McDonald State Fiscal and Planning Commission oversees all of the board’s actions. Voters, however, passed a 10.75 mill, five-year emergency levy which should enable the district to project a five-year forecast in the black, and be released from state fiscal emergency status.