Gardendale Board of Education interviews three for top financial position

The candidates for the new chief school financial officer’s (CSFO) position of the Gardendale Board of Education have something in common with the finalists for the superintendent’s job: they all are looking forward to a challenge at a brand new system.

The board interviewed three finalists for the open position on Monday night at the Gardendale Civic Center. All are currently serving as a CSFO in other systems in Alabama, and one lives in north Jefferson County.

Greg Maner has served as the CSFO for the Vestavia Hills school system for more than 13 years. Like the other finalists, Maynard is intrigued by the concept of being a part of a brand new system.

“I like the challenge,” he said. “I’d like to be able to get things started the way I think would work best, from scratch.”

Monique Rector, who has served as the CSFO of the Jasper City Schools for three years, is in a unique position — she previously served as a member of that system’s board, and was even its president for a time. She stepped down three months early from her second five-year term to apply for the CSFO job.

“Because I was the [board] president, I can see the big picture of how a system is working,” she said.

Rector likes the fact that a new system won’t be hung up in doing things an old way. “I get tired of hearing, ‘Because we’ve never done it that way before,’” she added.

Randy Dunlap has served as the CSFO for the Cullman County Schools for two decades, but has lived in Morris for many years. His children attended Mortimer Jordan High School, and his wife Laurie currently serves as a librarian there.

When he first started with the Cullman County system, one of Dunlap’s first tasks was to convert their accounting from manual posting and mechanical methods to a new computer system.

“It was a Radio Shack System 2 they bought off the shelf for $11,000, and it used 8-inch floppy disks [for data storage],” Dunlap said. “They were sold an inventory program that nobody knew how to use.”

The prospect of being Gardendale’s first CSFO, along with the fact that it’s closer to home, attracted Dunlap to the position.

“The idea of starting something like this from scratch is an interesting challenge,” he said.

Board President Chris Segroves told the finalists that they expected to choose someone quickly, as soon as a week. The board has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at the civic center.