The Southern Cayuga Central School District has hired a new business administrator.

In a 5-1 vote, Martha Stevermer was appointed as the school business administrator during a special board of education meeting last week.

“I'm very excited to have her join our team,” said Superintendent Mary Kay Worth. “It is very much about pulling a team together and taking very positive steps forward. It's all part of the vision to get regular people in place to replace the interims and move forward. It's very exciting.”

Stevermer will serve for a term of 3 years with an annual salary of $75,000 effective on Sept. 1. She is succeeding Charlie Mellor, who served as an interim business administrator for six years. Mellor, who retired from business years ago, became involved with an organization that places retired certified professionals with agencies that need qualified workers. He joined the district following the retirement of the previous administrator, Dana Russell, and “served in an stabilizing position,” Worth said. Mellor will leave the district Aug. 31.

“There was so much turnover in some of the other key administrative roles that while it was only intended for him to be an interim in the very important position of business administrator, we thought it was important for him to stay on,” said Worth, who joined Southern Cayuga in 2006. “There was never an intention for this to be a long-term agreement. It was always the intention to get back to a full-time Southern Cayuga employee.”

Stevermer, who is currently the internal claims auditor for the Wayne Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative Educational Services, has just completed her Certificate in Advanced Studies in School Business Administration.

“I'm very excited,” Stevermer said. “It's very interesting that I get to go ahead and use my education and training. I'm very excited about the area. It's just beautiful. And it's kind of like a first job again, a new career for me. It's very exciting.”

“This is just a culmination of all of the skills I've gathered through my life and I'm trying to put them together with my new education and start a new career,” she added. Stevermer has served as an administration officer for the United States Peace Corps and the internal auditor for the Ontario ARC. She also has worked for Apple Computer, Inc. and has banking experience, she said.

Board member Jim Wilcox issued the only no vote.

“After (the meeting) I had a discussion with the new business manager and she can expect all of the support from me,” Wilcox said, “So she's in great shape.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239.