Following the exit of Proviso High School District 209’s Romaneir Polley in November, the district announced the hire of a temporary replacement at the school board meeting on Dec. 11.
The temporary business manager, who will serve until June 30, 2013, is Diana McCluskey, who lists nine employers in the past 15 years, including school districts and financial services companies. Most recently, she worked in an East Aurora school district for six weeks, and prior to that at a Lake Zurich school district for one year. McCluskey will be paid $500 per day by the district.
The rules governing the hiring and management of the district’s finance director have changed since Polley was hired. New rules from the State Board of Education now say school district finance directors must answer to the financial oversight panel instead of the school board or administration.
“We’ll see how it goes,” said James Popernik, Finance Oversight Panel president. He said the district will advertise the post in February and hope to hire a permanent CFO by the new school year. The district would save money, Popernik added, by consolidating the financial administrator’s duties into the CFO position.
“We’ll be involved with the interview and that person will report to us,” he said.
Polley had expressed frustration with her work environment and was said to have disliked sitting through meetings that did not pertain to school finance.
Popernik told the Review when Polley announced her resignation that any CFO of the district would face challenges because of “poor school facilities, dropping [local property tax revenues] and the state not paying its bills.”
