There’s news up in them dar hills. The finance committee of the BOE met last night to discuss the imminent departure of Stuart Opdhal. The meeting was reported in the Hour. I say, day three of good governance. But what is Corda thinking? Before Opdhal resigned it was the battle of the OK corral, high noon– Corda defending against hiring a finance director and the reformist BOE-ers exercising that great equalizer of Dr. Check and Mr. Balance.
The gist of the argument presented by Dr. Corda, was that the staff of Opdhal, did all the work that any finance director does. This was supplemented by theatrical meetings where Opdahl would pull a factoid out of his nether regions and then refer to loyal staff sitting in the back row to actually provide details. A sample and entirely fictitous exchange:
BOE: Schools, global warming, what are we doing?
Opdhal: We’ve asked Parks and Rec to fix the see saw, and the price of tangerines in Madagascar is falling.
BOE: How long is the heating oil contract?
Opdhal: I don’t know the details, loyal staff will answer the question.
Loyal staff: 3 years.
BOE: Ending when.
Opdhal: We’ll have to get back to you, but we need $400k to line all drawers with contact paper.
I could go on, my notes are extensive in this direction. But lo and behold, Corda too fancies himself a comedy writer. The Hour reports:
“Obviously with Stu leaving, we have to make some decisions about replacing him,” Corda said. “He has overall responsibility for all aspects of financial operations such as budget development, accounting, and he has direct reports from facilities, technologies and others. Whether the title is finance director, assistant superintendent of business or operating officer, the structure is such that all organizational activities funnel into his model.”
What, his model train? The Opdhal model, has failed Norwalk Public Schools. Note here that Corda is now throwing loyal staff under the bus, whereas last time they were the little engine that could, doing all the things that a finance director does, now they need someone post haste because all that work needs to funnel. Somewhere.
Fortunately the BOE finance committee sees through this.
“My concern is there’s somebody whose primary concern is overall financial,” said Bruce Kimmel, BOE member. “I wouldn’t want to spread a finance director too thin, nor would I want to spread a COO too thin. The way the job is defined now is too expansive, I don’t think anyone could deal with so much detail. I do feel the finance department has to be strengthened, meaning the amount of hours people have to focus on an issue.”
Whether to fill or change the position comes up before the BOE at its next meeting on April 22 and Corda said he will begin looking for an appropriate candidate so there is a smooth transition.
And this is why organizations, good ones that is, plan for succession, so that any one cog is not indispensible and that other cogs can pick up the slack and get teh job done. What Corda is saying is that he wants an interim, er, funnel, because he doesn’t trust loyal staff to step it up. Now, why is that? Could it be that they haven’t done a good job? Or that they do too good a job? Perplexing now, isn’t it?
In any event, the finance committee of the BOE absolutely must do a forensic audit of the finances. Opdahl has a long reputation of leaving behind no trails of documentation, so a thorough examination might uncover things like non special ed staff being paid out of special ed accounts. It’s simply the right thing to do, and follows that good governance best practice model.
source: The Hour, BOE could get interim finance director, by Nina Sen, April 11, 2008
