Prepared Text for Board Meeting –
Marc A. Schare
There are few things that
a board of education can do, collectively or as individuals, that can have as
long lasting and profound effect on a school district as the hiring of a new
treasurer. A treasurer is not merely the Chief Financial Officer for, in our
case, a 105 million dollar organization, they are also the keeper of that trust
between the taxing authority and the taxpayer. We as an institution are
dependent on that trust for our very survival. There was a time, not to long
ago, when financial information coming out of the district could not be relied
upon. Bad numbers, rapidly changing numbers and unexplainable numbers led to
deep rooted community suspicion and distrust and only 6 short years ago, 3369
of our fellow citizens, myself included, were outraged enough to sign a
petition to repeal a tax levy. In the last 6 years, the district has fixed this
problem and the community has responded. We no longer argue about how much
there is to spend, if we argue at all, we argue about priorities. When numbers change as they inevitably do, whether due to changes
in the law, policy or simple human error, the changes are rigorously explained
for all to see. The community no longer believes that data is concealed,
the suspicion and distrust are, for the most part, gone and in November of
2006, 62% of voters approved our latest levy. When we started the treasurer
search, I knew, and this entire board knew, that we cannot go back.
The treasurer search was a
very intensive process. The board started with 18 candidates and invited 7 back
for interviews. We interviewed the 7 over 2 nights and did much independent
research before agreeing on 4 candidates for the next round. We did a second
round of interviews and we owe deep gratitude to the staff and to the
Treasurer’s Advisory Committee for their time and thoughtful advice in
conducting their own interviews and throughout the process. We selected 2
candidates to introduce to the community and tonight, we are formalizing the
appointment of Jeff McCuen as
As someone who has kept
track of our district’s financial well being for years now,
I want to make one other
point. When I came on the board, I was told that board members must all agree
on “important” decisions like levys or hiring a treasurer. I disagree. I value
and respect the opinion of every one of my colleagues and we discuss and argue
passionately over issues, but at the end of the day, there are still five of us
and it is possible that we look at the same set of data and draw different
conclusions and there will never be anything wrong with that, at least as far
as I’m concerned.
Jeff, welcome to
Worthington Schools. Do us proud.