BEAVERCREEK — Beavercreek City Schools Superintendent Nick Verhoff is one of two finalists for superintendent of Columbus Grove Local School District, a small, rural district in northwest Ohio from which he graduated.

The school board plans to name its new administrative leader Thursday night, board president Ned Stechschulte said.

Verhoff, 39, said Tuesday the board interviewed him Sunday but no final decision had been made. Hicksville Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Jesse Steiner is the other finalist.

Verhoff, who has headed Beavercreek’s district of about 7,600 students for two years, said he and his wife both graduated from the small district in Putnam County. It has about 900 students in one building serving prekindergarten through 12th-grade students.

“Columbus Grove is our hometown, from where we both graduated, and nearly all of our extended family is there,” he said. “This is a rare opportunity, which we both agreed I should explore.”

Al Nels, president of the Beavercreek school board, called Verhoff an excellent superintendent who had informed the board he wanted to explore the opportunity.

“It’s never something a board looks forward to but, on the same token, people have to look at their careers,” Nels said.

“We’ll deal with the challenge that results from that,” Nels said.

The possibility of losing their superintendent comes as school officials decide whether to put an issue on the November ballot after voters rejected a third straight request for new money in March. That decision is expected to come this month.

Verhoff said if he does leave Beavercreek, “I have all the confidence in the world in our district’s current leadership to carry the torch and get us over the hump in November.”

Verhoff had been principal of Shaw Elementary and Ankeney Middle schools and became Beavercreek’s top administrator in 2010. He replaced Gale Mabry, who served on an interim basis after board members’ first choice for a superintendent pulled out.

The board created an assistant superintendent job at Mabry’s urging so it would never again be in a bind when an administrator left or decided at the last minute not to take a job. “Should something unpredictable occur, you want to make sure you have some sort of a plan for your operations,” Nels said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2094 or mkissell @DaytonDailyNews.com.