Building a strong relationship with the CFO is essential for superintendents seeking to build sustainable educational programs for all students. Benzel and Hoover use their CFO and superintendent experience to identify what current and future leaders in both roles need to know and be able to do with respect to fiscal leadership and improved student learning. This book emphasizes that a focus on student achievement must be central to fiscal planning. The authors discuss the role values play in forming the leadership team, how to create a climate for success through collaborative strategies and ways to build systems strength to cope with uncertainty in fiscal planning. Using this leadership base, they outline the key management elements that must be in place to assure sound fiscal practices that monitor fiscal status and manage cash flow to mitigate uncertainty. Benchmarks for organizational success enhance communication with governing boards, internal audiences and taxpayers. This second edition adds perspective about detecting and address fraud or embezzlement and shares leadership perspective on capital facility planning and management. This book provides leaders with an outline of what do during every quarter of the fiscal year to exercise effective fiscal and educational leadership.

Brian L. Benzel served three districts as superintendent in Washington State for 19 years and served over as a state financial official, a school district finance officer and a university CFO. He was Washington State's Superintendent of the Year in and a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year (1993).

Kenneth E. Hoover began his career in the Washington State Governor's budget office and then served as the CFO and senior financial official for school districts in Washington State and Colorado. He has served as a school superintendent in Washington State for 9 years.

Foreword

Helene Paroff

Washington Association of School Administrators

Dr. Steven Fink

Center for Educational Leadership

University of Washington

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: LEADING THE BUSINESS OF LEARNING

Part II: MANAGING THE BUSINESS OF LEARNING

Part III: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Bibliography

Glossary of Fiscal Terms

Index

About the Authors