Even in tough fiscal times, school business leaders must find solutions to provide increased opportunities and success for students, teachers and programs.
ACSA’s 2010 Business Services Administrator of the Year John Niederkorn, assistant superintendent for administrative and business services at Vacaville USD, accomplishes this with vision and a commitment to making improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.
“This past year has been the most difficult budget year that either of us has known since working in public school district administration,” said Vacaville Superintendent John Aycock. “John has provided a focused, well managed approach to bringing the budget process to a successful conclusion each year.”
Niederkorn understands that public education has always had limitations in funding, even in the “golden years,” and that the activities and needs of any school and classroom would benefit from additional resources. However, the focus of teachers and school administrators has always been on the improvement of instructional effectiveness, and not the management of reducing expenses.
“As business administrators and educators whose responsibilities are to maintain fiscal solvency and to support improved student performance, we now face each day with further revenue reductions, deferrals and other funding surprises,” Niederkorn said. “We now need to constantly revisit our expenditure priorities and match them with our instructional priorities.”
Niederkorn’s vision is to work with various stakeholder groups, communicate the facts of the recurring fiscal challenge, identify a set of options, and facilitate a process of decision making, while maintaining a primary focus on the education of students.
He has accomplished significant cost savings working with the directors of purchasing, maintenance and operations, child nutrition and transportation. In addition, he managed to bring about a new Educational Services Center facility, a longtime goal of the district and school board.
As lead negotiator for the district, Niederkorn’s work has ensured the district is able to honor obligations in its master agreement, even during the current budget crisis.
“We all have self-interest in the budget discussion, but by listening to each other, we recognize that there is an impact of the fiscal crisis beyond ourselves and beyond our own classroom,” he said. “The challenge is to continue to demonstrate to our school community that collectively we can continue to offer a quality program even with dwindling funds. While no one welcomes the reductions brought on by the fiscal crisis, maintaining a unified school community in facing these difficult challenges is very satisfying.
“Previously, school finance technical expertise was the requisite skill-set for a CBO. But in these fiscally difficult times I find that the CBO must explore all revenue enhancement and expenditure reduction options while overlaying the priorities of the instructional program.”
Niederkorn said applying a business model to the educational system can provide answers. But that was previously anathema to educators. Too often the response would be, “We are educating kids, not producing widgets.” But in the current funding environment, many concepts of a business model are the salvation of a school district.
Applying such concepts as “conservation,” “efficiency,” “cost-benefit,” “economy of scale” and “strategic planning” can mitigate the full impact of reduced funding, Niederkorn said.
“The CBO needs to be the spokesman for the business model and recruit all stakeholders to be active managers of our precious, diminished resources,” he said. “Without applying the active management of resources, our resource tools enabling us to be effective instructional leaders are diminished.”
In his experience as a classroom teacher and as a principal, Niederkorn frequently received expressions of appreciation in the form of hugs or cards from kids or parents and staff. Such displays of gratitude decreased as he moved to the district office. However, in the last few years, more and more colleagues and parents have said “thanks,” recognizing the challenges his job now entails.
“Their expressed appreciation has been gratifying and compels me to continue searching for the next round of solutions,” he said.
Niederkorn admits ACSA has been an important support system along the way. In his 37 years as an educator, and as an ACSA member, leadership and effective communication has been a constant focus in professional development, regardless of his job responsibilities. ACSA has provided job specific professional development academies, conferences and workshops that have been instrumental.
“Learning from our colleagues, establishing professional networks, and benefiting from hard-learned lessons of others, has enhanced my skill-set and strategies in order to better deal with new programs and requirements of this job,” he said. “It has been during the unanticipated challenges of our fiscal crisis that these communication and leadership skills become so invaluable.”
Niederkorn will be formally honored along with ACSA’s other Administrator of the Year Award recipients at the Leadership Summit, Nov. 4-6 in San Diego. Profiles of each of the honorees will be featured in EdCal through Nov. 1. To register for the Leadership Summit, call the ACSA Educational Services Department at (800) 608-ACSA or click here.