RSS Feed
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
McGhee works to improve certification in state and the world
She has been honored by her peers for efforts to strengthen the certification standards. However, her work has also gotten the attention of school officials in Great Britain. McGhee spearheaded a program of certification for public school finance officers in Alabama. The program was started through the Alabama Association of Business School Officials (AASBO). Prior to 2000 there was no official training for school financial officers, she said. "Prior to 2003 there were no minimum requirements or job qualifications in the whole state. "Some systems had people with no degrees, which was fine because most of them had come up through the ranks and learned on-job experience. And then you had anything from no degree to masters and CPA's in other systems." McGhee did her college senior thesis at the University of Mobile concerning the certification issue. She showed her research to AASBO, and the program for certification was begun. "We saw it as something viable for our profession," McGhee said. The program was started in 2000 on a volunteer basis aided by the University of Alabama Continuing Studies Program. The Alabama Board of Education contributed $95,000 toward the AASBO program. After three years as a volunteer program, the state Board of Education adopted minimum requirements for finance officers. In addition, all finance officers had to complete the AASBO training program. Alabama is one of only 16 states in the United States that have mandatory certification requirements. The demands on a school system financial officer have changed over the years. "Years ago this position used to be seen as just a bookkeeper," she said. "…As accountability came in and other legal issues…the job is more administrative now. "We spend a majority of our time analyzing, trying to come up with how many teacher units we need to put here, are we spending money in the correct places based on school improvement plans." McGhee must deal with 20 funding sources for the Thomasville system. And the financial data must be made accessible to not only the school board members but the public. "It has to be completely transparent," she said. "...(Because of the demands on the financial officer position) the state department has said they consider this position to be the next in importance to the superintendent." McGhee received an international award in October 2005 in a Boston, Mass. ceremony. "It's the highest award given to a school business official," she said. She was nominated for the award by her colleagues in Alabama. "That was the highlight of my career." While attending the Boston ceremony, she participated in a session with Roy Morecroft of the United Kingdom and David Ginsburg of Capetown, South Africa. A program was being developed in the UK by Manchester Metropolitan University. Morecroft visited McGhee in Thomasville in 2006. He then invited McGhee to Britain from Jan. 9-18, 2008. "They wanted us to look at all the programs they were doing for school business managers," she said. The structure is different in the UK. "A few years ago, the UK went through a reformation of how they were going to fund schools. Prior to that, they were giving all their funds to the local authority, which would be considered the central office here. "…It was changed to where the money went directly out to the schools and the schools have basic controls over all their spending. They realized that they didn't have staff in the schools to handle these kinds of budgets." Now, they have chief financial officers at every school, she said. McGhee visited a secondary school in Britain, which had 1,200 students (ages 13-16) and had a budget of $8 million. "In Alabama, there are some school districts that do what we call 'site based management.' They actually send dollars out to the schools. Some of the larger systems do that….Most of the time they don't send payroll or personnel. "(In Britain) they're send ing everything out to the (individual) schools….The schools are responsible for hiring, facilities. They're responsible for everything." Would that be too much pressure for individual schools? "Without the proper staff, it would be," she said. "It would cost us a lot to do that." McGhee came away from the trip with the inspiration to start a B.A. and Masters program in business management. "Through on-line courses we (AASBO) could partner with Manchester University. The programs are the same, when you talk about financial statements and balance sheets." AASBO plans to talk to a local university to sponsor the business management program. There are hopes that eventually an international certification will be adopted where someone certified in Alabama can work anywhere in the world as a school financial officer. McGhee, a native of the Salitpa community and a graduate of Coffeeville High School, worked for the Clarke County Schools System for 13 years and the Thomasville system for 17 years.
Her job comes from helping find money to make projects happen in the city system. "It's a benefit for the students," she said. "I never forget that....Even if I don't have day-to-day contact with them, I'm here to support the students and the academics for the students."
|
for larger version       |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
