Vandalia-Butler to search for new treasurer

The school district is not renewing its financial services contract with Montgomery County ESC.

Vandalia-Butler City Schools will not renew a financial services contract it entered into in December with the Montgomery County Educational Service Center’s Shared Resources Center, as a cost-saving measure.

Board of Education members entered into the $143,000 contract with the ESC to use its financial services shortly after the district’s Chief Financial Officer Daniel Schall resigned in December to be a contractor for the Shared Resources Center. Schall is the president of OPT Edge, LLC, a firm made up of school finance and resource professionals. His salary at the time of his resignation from the district was $128,361, according to Bethany Reiff, district spokeswoman.

The school district’s contract with ESC expires June 30.

“I’m still the main treasurer for Vandalia, but I am the main treasurer through the Shared Resources Center,” said Schall, who started his contract job with ESC in January. “Potentially, they are not going to hire the treasurer through the Shared Resources Center, instead they are bringing that person in house.”

But, Superintendent Brad Neavin said the board has not made a definite decision about what to do with the treasurer’s position. “The board is doing the search. Whether or not at the end of that search they’ll decide to hire someone else into that position is yet to be determined,” he said.

The board did vote last month to enter into an agreement with the Ohio Association of School Business Officials and Chris Mohr, owner of K12 Business Consulting in Dublin and former treasurer for Springfield City Schools, to conduct a search for an in-house treasurer. Neavin added that as of last week the $7,000 contract with these two organizations had not yet been signed.

When asked why the board opted to hire a consulting firm to search for a new treasurer as opposed to continuing a contract with ESC, Neavin said the board’s number one priority is provide excellent financial services for the district’s students.

Board President Robert Cupp said in a media statement that the board wanted to explore alternatives.

Prior to entering into the agreement with ESC, the district already had a shared services model because Schall was also the treasurer for Valley View Local School District. Now that Schall is with ESC, he is the treasurer for Vandalia-Butler, Valley View, Brookville Local Schools and the Dayton Regional STEM School in Kettering.

“What the Governor has pressed public sector entities to do is more shared services to save money,” said Frank DePalma, superintendent of Montgomery County ESC.

Whoever the district hires as the in-house treasurer will take on the job after June 30, according to Schall.

“Whether they go through Shared Services or they bring a person in-house has its advantages and disadvantages, so I support whichever way the board wants to consider going forward,” Schall said.

In addition to Schall, Tiffany Hiser, the district’s fiscal manager and Suzanne Chuvalas, the district’s assistant treasurer, also resigned from their district jobs in January to work for Schall’s company, according to Reiff.

The board will meet in a workshop session at 5 p.m., Monday, in the board’s large conference room, 306 S. Dixie Dr. The next regular board meeting will be 7 p.m., March 25 in the lecture room of Butler High School, 600 S. Dixie Drive.

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