A Wood County native with more than 30 years of experience in school finance has been named the new treasurer and chief financial officer for Bowling Green City Schools.

The board of education hired Matt Feasel this afternoon and gave him a three-year contract starting Aug. 1.

He will replace Cathy Schuller, who has been with the district since November 2017 and whose contract was nonrenewed in February. Her last day is July 31.

“We are very, very fortunate to have Mr. Feasel joining our team,” said board President Tracy Hovest. “With 30-plus years of experience, he has a lot to add to this district. … We’re very excited to have you come aboard.”

Feasel has served as the CFO/treasurer for Pike Delta York Local School District since September 2016. He worked with Ted Haselman for eight years while Haselman was superintendent.

“We were constantly in one or the other’s offices,” Feasel said about he and Haselman at Pike-Delta-York. “I think that’s important, the relationship between your superintendent and treasurer.”

“His knowledge and resources will help us move our district forward,” Haselman said.

Feasel graduated from Elmwood High School in 1978 and later served as district treasurer there. He left in 1995 to take the treasurer’s job in the Fremont school district and during his eight years there, he also served as a board member at Elmwood.

He was a member of the board when Elmwood became the first district in the county to use state funds to build a new school facility.

Feasel started his career as deputy auditor for the Wood County Auditor’s Office and through the years has also been a treasurer in Hilliard.

He moved to Perrysburg in 2005 when he took the job as school district treasurer there.

Feasel and Haselman were also employed at Perrysburg at the same time.

“I think he’ll bring transparency, he bring of experience, he will have a lot of information he is able to share with the community and be able to have instant credibility because he’s been doing it for so long,” Haselman said.

Feasel was treasurer in Perrysburg when another employee stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Perrysburg Schools and the Bowling Green Bobcat Athletic Boosters Club. Eric Whitson was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years and Feasel resigned.

“Matt’s not the one behind bars, somebody else is,” Haselman said. “Matt didn’t do anything wrong. Since then, he has worked in a district that has had clean audits and did a great job and put a district to be in a position to be very financially stable. He’s proven himself over the last number of years he’s still a great treasurer.”

“Bowling Green – even though I’ve never lived in Bowling Green – has always been considered home,” Feasel said about why he took this job. “I got started with the auditor’s office … and growing up in Bloomdale, you came to Bowling Green.”

“When this position became open, I was definitely interested,” he said. “I think Bowling Green is definitely on its way up and I think there’s a lot of positive things going on.”

“This November, I’ll have been in school finance for 40 years,” Feasel said.

Feasel and his wife Terri have three daughters and seven grandchildren.

The district received six application and interviewed three candidates, Hovest said.

“His expertise and his experience are above all the rest and he has experience with (Ohio Facilities Construction Commission) projects with Elmwood and marrying all of that together makes him the perfect candidate,” she said.

In his role as CFO/treasurer, Feasel will oversee all aspects of financial management for the school district; the oversight of daily operations of the treasurer’s department, including asset inventory, payroll, purchasing, financial forecasting, revenues, expenditures, state and federal grant reporting, and investing district funds; the preparation of the annual budget, an annual financial report, and the compilation and submission of the five-year forecast. He will also serve as secretary to the board of education, maintaining official records, documents, contracts, and board meeting minutes.

For the first year of his contract, his salary will be $127,500. That amount will increase to $130,000 in year two and $132,500 in year three of the contract.

During the transition, Feasel will be paid at a per diem rate of $503.95 for up to 10 days between today and July 31.