ADAMS TWP -- Mars Area School District athletic director Scott Heinauer plans to retire just before the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, school officials said.

The athletic director position was listed as open as of Tuesday on the district’s website.

At a meeting Tuesday night, board members officially approved Heinauer’s retirement, to be effective Aug. 5 at the end of the workday.

“I wanted to extend a special thank-you to Mr. Heinauer,” said Mark Gross, Mars Area School District superintendent, at the meeting. “We accepted his retirement this evening after decades of working with our students and our student-athletes. I just wanted to wish him well in his retirement, and we look forward to him assisting us with the transition.”

Mars personnel administrator Lori Kennedy said the district received notification Monday that Heinauer planned to retire.

“He said he was looking at retirement for years, and he thought it was time to go,” Gross said.

Heinauer has served as the district’s athletic director for more than 30 years. He also served as the varsity football coach from 1992 to early 2022 but was not brought back as head coach this past January.

The listing for athletic director’s job is described as a full-time position, available at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. The director will be responsible for “overseeing all aspects of the athletics program, including the hiring of coaches, scheduling, and budget preparation.” A bachelor’s degree is required, though a master’s degree and “proven experience” as a state public school district athletic director are preferred.

An ideal candidate “must have (a) strong sense of character judgment, excellent communication skills, and leadership qualities,” according to the listing. The deadline to apply is June 28.

Gross said the district would form a committee to screen applications and determine how many first-round interviews will be conducted. He described it as “a very typical, traditional hiring process,” and he said the district would not need to seek outside consultants as it did during the search for a new head football coach.

“In this case, the administration will review applications and make the hiring recommendations to the board,” Gross said.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, members approved the posting of a new policy for 30-day public viewing and comment. The policy would prevent administrators from holding coaching positions.

Gross said the rule would help prevent administrators from overworking themselves.

“The role of administrator anymore in public schools is so extensive, and takes you well beyond the traditional hours,” he said. “It’s basically a protection on the district, and also on the administrators, so that someone’s not overtaxed to the point that they’re trying to juggle too much.”

The policy will be posted online for review before it is voted on at a July board meeting.

The board also approved the 2022-23 budget at the meeting. Eight board members voted yes. Board member Megan Lenz was absent.

The $56 million budget breaks even, with $1.04 million from the district fund balance used to fill a potential deficit. Expenditures and revenues each add up to $56.7 million, an increase of $1.61 million from last year. There is no real estate tax increase in the budget.

Board member Jennifer DiCuccio said that while she voted yes on the budget, she was “not personally fully satisfied” with it.

DiCuccio said the budget did not completely address a number of issues, including parking, support staffing shortages, signage, foreign language offerings, building and grounds upkeep, technology in elementary classrooms, growth planning, kindergarten program expansion, cybercourse offerings, and the hiring of a curriculum director.

“Families today are dealing with inflation, higher gas prices and higher groceries, and gas and electricity bills are going up," she said. "Despite many district expenses rising as well, the administration worked very hard to minimize the impact on taxpayers this year while still adding positions to our academic program. For that, I thank you very much.”

Board member Nicole Thurner thanked district business manager Debbie Brandstetter for her work on the budget.

“The budget process, thanks to Debbie, was very easy for us to understand and get through and convey everything to the public, but I do think we have a lot of work ahead of us for the years to come,” Thurner said. “Bear with us, and hopefully we can work together to address most of those issues.”

Board member Lee Ann Riner added that the district was continuing to look at how to keep up with growth.

“We do have a long list of things that we would like, but we know that there are more pressing foundational needs that need to be addressed first, and I think we are doing that,” she said. “We are planning for growth, and I just want to let the community know that we are doing things behind the scenes to try and make things happen.”