LIBERTY — Months after granting her a one-year administrative contract starting in January, the district secured its treasurer for the next several years.

The Liberty Board of Education at its meeting Monday approved granting Amber Shaeffer a three-year contract, effective Aug. 1 through July 31, 2028.

Stacy Foster, who has served as interim treasurer for the district since last August, stayed in the position until Shaeffer reobtained her Ohio School Treasurers License, which expired in 2024.

Shaeffer sat in on regular meetings throughout the year until she reobtained it, fully taking over for Foster at June’s board meeting.

Shaeffer came from Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health (C&A) in Canton, a nonprofit full-service, trauma-informed mental health organization specializing in the emotional and behavioral needs of youth and their families, where she served as its chief financial officer.

In addition to working as C&A’s chief financial officer, she previously worked for Summit Academy Management as its treasurer from 2016 to 2020, where she was responsible for reporting to its 24 school boards and its management board.

Shaeffer received Auditor of State awards for clean audits for all of its schools in 2017 and 2018’s fiscal years during that time.

RESOURCE OFFICERS

Also at the meeting, the board approved a memorandum of understanding between the district and the township’s board of trustees for the police department to provide two officers to serve as school resource officers (SROs) — effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.

The annual cost will be $108,000 per year for the first year, with a 3% increase for the next two years to follow. One officer is to be full-time at the school’s campus each day that students are in school, while the other will be part-time.

Superintendent Brian Knight said that the township’s police department losing access to its traffic cameras resulted in elevated costs. With what the district had budgeted, Knight said the move was a “win-win” for both groups.

Knight said the full-time position will be filled by an individual with previous resource officer experience, while the part-timer will be a preexisting township officer – giving the township officer the flexibility to be on the road as needed.

Knight praised the full-time resource officer, whose name he didn’t disclose at the meeting.

“He was at Victory Christian, and he’s a good dude; he’s involved in programs and does things for the kids,” Knight said. “We’re hopeful he’s going to be able to do some of the programs that Officer (Jim) Newton had done before.”

In other action, the board:

● Approved a $2.77 per mile charge for all nonroutine student transportation on district buses for travel both within and outside the district’s boundaries, effective Aug. 1, 2025. The charge is because of the rising cost of bus fuel and other operational costs and do not exceed actual operational costs of school buses, in compliance with the Ohio Administrative Code.

● Approved granting Heather Bielik a one-year limited contract as a school counselor, effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, at a salary of $53,736.

● Accepted a $500 donation from Elaine Jacobs for the cost of field trip transportation to the Liberty Girls Basketball team.

● Accepted a $1,000 donation from Charles Stevens for the Liberty High School Robotics club.

● Accepted a $3,620 donation from Jack Simon for the Liberty High School Robotics club.