By Diego Marcucci
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District approved a new director of fiscal services position at the Oct. 1 Board of Trustees meeting to assist the district in preparing the budget estimates and revisions for all district programs.
At the Sept. 17 Board of Trustees meeting, the board revealed a $4 million budget overestimation in the general fund for the 2013-14 school year. This budget error, according to Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews, led to the decision to hire a director of fiscal services.
“I think people want more budget oversight,” Matthews said. “We took this into consideration when making the decision to approve this new position.”
Prior to hiring the new director, the personnel commission, an MBUSD board that reviews the candidates, must approve the candidate to ensure that classified employees are selected off merit and ability. According to Matthews, the district hopes to start interviewing candidates beginning in mid-November and fill the position by Dec 1.
“I think having more eyes on the district budget will help us to be more accurate,” Matthews said. “It will help us forecast better and help with the efficiency of the department.”
The director’s responsibilities include supervising all accounting functions and activities within the district, overseeing the preparation of budget reports, coordinating financial information received by district administrators and evaluating the performance of district employees.
“We want to make sure that everything regarding the budget is happening the way it should and that the MBUSD has its purchases coded the right way,” Assistant Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard said.
Leave a Reply