After 24 years as administrative secretary at Wiscasset High School, Shelley Schmal will be moving on to serve as finance manager for the nearly one-year-old Wiscasset School Department.

“I’m excited, I’m sad, all those things,” Schmal, of Wiscasset, said Monday afternoon, Feb. 23. “I think it’s going to be a great challenge,” she said about the new job, which is also new to the department.

In year one outside Regional School Unit 12, Wiscasset has had the school district handle the town school department’s payroll and other business tasks. The department has ordered business software for next year, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage states in a report released Monday.

Beverage states in the report that he has appointed Schmal to the finance officer’s position effective immediately: “Shelley will complete her obligations at the high school this spring, while at the same time establishing the accounts and software necessary to open Wiscasset books.”

The department anticipates having a project manager from Tyler Technologies oversee the software’s implementation, the report states.

Schmal said she will finish out the current school year at the high school, where she has also served as yearbook adviser for 21 years. Asked if she will miss working there, she said: “Of course I will. It’s been my second home.”

Schmal will be a great asset to the school department in her new job, Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle states in an email response to the Wiscasset Newspaper’s request for comment.

“I can't think of a better person that is more organized, understands our budget and cares about Wiscasset to organize our finances,” Towle writes. “She will be greatly missed at the high school and we will certainly have a difficult time finding someone to fill her shoes.”

Beverage will present his superintendent’s report about Schmal’s appointment, progress on the next budget and other items at the Wiscasset School Committee’s next meeting, set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in the Wiscasset High School library.

Also Thursday, the committee is scheduled to name the new superintendent of schools, discuss possible new names for the high school and Wiscasset Middle School, and discuss the middle school playground.