Naperville man pitches tighter requirements for school finance officials
Money is on the minds of school officials across the state, as politicians continue to haggle over how to dole out funding for education.
But one Naperville man has some ideas that he says could help schools better manage their money - independent of any changes in how much they receive from the state.
Bill Eagan, a former chief school business official for Hinsdale High School District 86, says the district's top money manager should be a certified public accountant or certified management accountant. Along with that requirement, he says, the person in that job should report directly to the school board.
Eagan, a CPA and CMA who comes from a corporate accounting and finance background, has met with three suburban state representatives who are on a House committee about licensing, administration and oversight for elementary and secondary education.
He said increasing the financial literacy requirements to be a chief school business official, abbreviated in education circles as CSBO, will help school districts operate more efficiently and keep more of their money in the classroom.
"The rub will be getting the superintendents and the school boards to say, 'We need people like this who haven't been in schools,'" Eagan said.
While some school business officials already come from a business background, others rise to the role from education positions.
"Schools like to hire the math teacher," Eagan said. "But they don't have the experience."
Eagan said school districts with financially inexperienced professionals in the CSBO position could have insufficient internal controls on the spending of money and too little analysis of how money is spent from year to year.
"Schools handle finances differently," he said. "But they shouldn't."
To become a CSBO already requires a high level of education and several steps.
Candidates must hold a master's degree or equivalent, such as a law degree or doctorate of education. If their degree isn't in business administration, finance or accounting, they must complete 24 credit hours of graduate courses in a school business official preparation program. If their degree is financial in nature, they must complete an internship. All candidates must have two years administrative experience in school business management or another approved field. And they must pass a certification test.
Christine Kiracofe, a professor of educational administration at Northern Illinois University, teaches a law course to students in the university's online CSBO master's program. She said large school districts with complex financial needs - land purchases, bond sales or tax increment financing districts, for instance - could benefit from voluntarily requiring a CPA or CMA to fill their top financial role.
"I've seen people from both backgrounds - the education path and the finance path - do excellent in the role," Kiracofe said. "Do I think it's better one or the other? I think so much depends on the needs of the district."
Problem is, Illinois is a state of widely varying school districts.
Some suburban districts are large organizations with budgets in the hundreds of millions. Yet some downstate districts have only one or two schools and a smaller talent pool of financial professionals.
"Obviously we want the law to protect the people of the districts," said state Rep. David Olsen, a Downers Grove Republican who met with Eagan about CSBO requirements. "But we also don't want the law to be so burdensome that school districts are unable to find someone who meets the qualifications."
State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, an Aurora Democrat, said Eagan's idea of updating the rules to become a school money manager is a good way to bring "a little more expertise" to those running the books.
"You really need somebody that's going to be sharp, that's going to be outside of the political vacuum that we live in, that's really going to be a hawk for the taxpayers' dollars," Chapa LaVia said. "That's where Bill's idea is very intriguing to me."