School Business Administrator For A Regional Technical School District
Career review from a person working in the job
How I Got The Job
My Education: AS, Executive Secretarial, Aquinas College (Milton, MA) BS, Business Management, University of Phoenix
My Prior Experience: I worked as an administrative assistant for seven years at a heating, ventilation and air conditioning company. For the past eleven years I've been working in a school district, starting out as an accounts payable clerk and moving up to my current position as school business administrator.
My Job Profile
My Company: I work for a regional technical school district in a small city in Massachusetts.
Job/Career Overview: I am the school business administrator for a regional technical school district in southeastern Massachusetts. I am responsible for the financial operation of the school district including budgeting, payroll, human resources, accounts payable/receivable and purchasing. In the business office, there are four employees whom I manage: an accounting specialist, administrative assistant, accounts payable/receivable clerk and a payroll/personnel specialist. In addition to these responsibilities, I oversee the school lunch program.
During a typical day I interact frequently with the Superintendent and Principal to make decisions concerning the fiscal operations of the district. The decisions we make ensure that the students of the district are being provided for appropriately and are receiving an adequate education. I am responsible for approving all of the purchase orders to ensure appropriate expense reporting to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
I truly love my position as school business administrator and enjoy every aspect of the position.
Love It? Hate It?
I rate this career 10 out of 10.
What I Love or Hate
The best part of the position, besides the salary, is the opportunity it affords me to work on my own, make important decisions that make a difference in a child's education and being respected by my colleagues.
There are many aspects of my work that I feel people would consider the "worse parts of the job" but I look at each task as a learning experience. Wherever you go, you need to take the good with the bad. There are times when I make decisions that affect people in a negative way. For example, recently I was tasked with providing a cost analysis for outsourcing our Technology Department. After reviewing the analysis, the Superintendent decided to move forward with the outsourcing and three people lost their jobs. It was a tough decision but you cannot take things personally when it comes to business and running a fiscally responsible operation.
My Career Tips
If you decide to pursue a career as a school business administrator, it is wise to obtain the appropriate college degrees when you are young. I returned to college as an adult with children and it was very tough for me.
I believe that a good school business administrator should be one who has gotten experience in all the positions she supervises. The person should have hands-on experience in accounting, payroll, human resources and management.
