Despite there being a changing of the guard for the Cardinal Board of Education’s treasurer position, the newest appointee brings a wealth of experience. The Board of Education announced Dan Wilson as the district’s new treasurer, succeeding former treasurer Terry Armstrong, on May 23.
“This opportunity in Cardinal, I saw as one where I can have a more visible impact on helping to continue to pursue and enhance the educational opportunity for students,” Wilson told The Weekly Villager on May 29. “Superintendent Jack Cunningham has a tremendous passion for enhancing programs and expanding programs. I saw where I could support him with some of the knowledge I have gained over the years.”
Beginning on June 2, Wilson will assume his duties as Cardinal’s newest treasurer on a part-time basis. He will work in conjunction with outgoing treasurer Terry Armstrong until the end of the fiscal year on June 30th when Armstrong officially steps down. Wilson will take over full-time on July 7.
According to Wilson, he takes over at a pivotal time as the Board and Superintendent Cunningham seek to enhance the educational programs and find ways to financially support those initiatives. He added that he will also begin developing a financial plan that allows Cardinal to maximize its current resources before eventually needing to ask the State of Ohio for financial support.
“We are blessed that we don’t have a need for a tax levy at the current time but within the next three-to-five years, we will have to ask for some additional financial support,” he noted. “So that will give me time at see if there are opportunities to extend the period before we have to ask for additional support.”
Wilson takes over a position he is very familiar with having spent 50 years working as a public school treasurer for several school districts across the State of Ohio. He added that working in the public school sector has almost become a family business, as his grandmother served as an elementary school teacher, his father began as a teacher and ultimately finished his career as a Superintendent and his wife has worked as a school nurse for almost the entirety of her career.
After retiring from public school administration in the Mentor School District four years ago, Wilson worked part time with the Educational Service Center of Western Reserve but had worked closely with the Cardinal Board of Education in several searches, including finding a new Superintendent and a new treasurer.
He said that when the Board sought a new treasurer to replace Armstrong, he decided to come out of retirement.
“One important consideration that came out through our conversations is that I am bringing a wealth of professional experience and knowledge to the district where now a district like Cardinal and many of the smaller districts, particularly in our region, have to have a treasurer who is coming out of the private sector or some other level of government but has not actually been a treasurer or Chief Fiscal Officer,” he noted. “While they work hard and do all they can do, they don’t bring a deep knowledge base on how to operate the fiscal office in a public school district.”
Wilson acknowledged that the Cardinal School District is one the smallest districts he has worked in over the course of his illustrious career, but he is familiar with working in smaller districts, as his first treasurer’s position took place in the Woodridge School District in Peninsula.
He said that the key to working in smaller school districts is having a more hands-on approach but added that the technological strides made have eased the burden of working in smaller districts.
“A lot of the more mundane daily operational things now are being done electronically which creates more opportunity for us to look at how do we most efficiently operate, how do we most efficiently allocate and use the available resources,” he said.
In addition to being well-versed in the inner workings of school districts throughout the State of Ohio, Wilson said that he and his family have developed an affinity for Middlefield, one of the smallest communities they have been a part of but have come to admire for its tight-knit nature.
“One of the things I like is that there seems to be a common element that the business communities have a need for educated students to help their businesses,” he said. “The parents of the district have a passion for having their students educated well, whether they go directly into the work force or pursue additional education. I have been impressed with a community that does value providing a quality education.”
