Seattle Schools Community Forum

This name had sounded familiar to me but I have never met Ms. Berge. Seattle Public School Welcomes New Chief Financial Officer JoLynn Berge  Seattle Public Schools (SPS) hired JoLynn Berge as the district’s Chief Financial Officer. Berge brings extensive experience to the district and will begin her new role on June 15, filling the position vacated by Kenneth Gotsch. 

From District Communications: Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield announced in letter to staff on Tuesday the appointment of Duggan Harman to the position of Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance. As Executive Director of Finance and Audit, Mr. Harman currently directs the District's financial department, including overseeing the budget, accounting, grants, payroll and audit response departments. He wil take over for Bob Boesche, who has served as Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance since March 2011. Bob will continue assisting in a transitional role over the next several months. Congratulations to Mr. Harman on his new position. We all wish him great success. The District took a long time to fill this position - nearly a year. They advertised, they did a search, but they could not find an acceptable candidate. I don't know how much the superintendent's interim status contributed to the difficulty in finding a new CFO, but par...

The panel last night was Steve Sundquist, Sherry Carr, Pegi McEvoy (COO), Robert Boesche (CFO) and Dr. Enfield.   Peter Maier also attended but was not part of the panel.  Linda Shaw from the Times attended and there were about 30 people in the audience. The Seattle Council PTSA was very gracious in dispensing with the business part of the meeting and went right to comments from the panel and then questions.  It was an interesting format because you could submit a written question and, at the end, ask a question.  I had printed out all the budget questions I had received from my thread and gave it to the moderator.

The district has announced the appointment of Robert Boesche as interim CFO for SPS. From the district's news release: Boesche, who started his job Monday, has served as an interim Chief Financial Officer for several Puget Sound school districts, including Edmonds, Shoreline, Vashon Island, Monroe and Kent. He also was employed as Chief Financial Officer for the Northshore School District from June 1989 until he retired in November 2001. He looks like a "fixer" CFO. At least he has a lot of experience. The Times states that Pegi McEvoy, the director of health and safety, is the interim COO. It seems odd that the district didn't include this information with the press release about the CFO. I know Pegi and I like her but I have my doubts that she's the right person. Maybe as a placeholder because while I know she knows the district, her role in health and safety doesn't exactly qualify her for operations. I wish the district had released some more info o...