SEQUIM — The Sequim School Board has approved a $130,000 annual contract with newly hired Sequim School District Superintendent Kelly Shea.

School oard members unanimously approved the contract Monday night.

He will receive standard state health insurance.

Sarah Bedinger, board president, said Shea will not be given a car or cellphone allowance.

“It is a three-year contract, and it will have to be renewed every year,” Bedinger said, adding that Shea’s first review is scheduled in December 2013.

At that time, the board will decide whether to renew his contract, Bedinger said.

Shea, 47, starts as the district’s top executive

July 1.

Superintendent Bill Bentley is leaving for personal reasons after five years on the job.

Following a busy week of interviewing, touring and introducing the four finalists for the job to the public and district staff for question-and-answer sessions, the board voted late Friday to offer the job to Shea.

Bentley was paid $120,000 a year plus benefits.

Shea has been the human services director for five years at Mead School District in Spokane and an educator since 1987.

The Spokane native said he plans to visit Sequim in April and May to talk to departing Superintendent Bentley and School Board members and find a place to live.

Shea said Saturday he was impressed with the Sequim district’s structure of “great community support.”

“Everybody seems like they are committed to serving kids,” he said, and the district is financially “in good shape” even in hard economic times.

He began as a teacher in the Spokane School District, where he worked for 10 years.

He served for another decade as elementary school principal in the Central Valley and Mead school districts.

Shea graduated from Whitworth University in Spokane, earning a degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in reading, and has superintendent credentials from Washington State University.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.