School City of Hammond appears to have stabilized its finances, but the school board has fired the chief financial officer who oversaw that process.
During Tuesday's school board meeting, board president Carlotta Blake-King announced that the state's Distressed Unit Appeal Board has determined that the school corporation will no longer be subject to a corrective action plan. "There is no need for monthly meetings, no reporting," Blake-King explained. "We've just got to do what they told us to do in 2019, and that was watch our money. And that is our declaration today."
The plan put in place last year had a number of cost-cutting measures, including the closure of three elementary schools and significant cuts to teaching and support staff positions.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Brent Wilson said that plan worked. He pointed to healthy growth in the district's cash balances last year. For example, the education fund went from just $759,447 at the start of 2024 to $13,584,827 at the end of the year.
"So, just a huge increase there. The target balance, you're almost on target for what the balance should be — about a million shy of what you determined when you started the corrective action plan, so just a huge turnaround in a 12-month period," Wilson said during the annual board of finance meeting.
Still, the school board approved the termination of Chief Financial Officer Eric Kurtz as part of Tuesday's personnel report. Mellissa Guerra abstained from voting, and Kelly Spencer was absent.
The firing drew criticism from former school board member Cindy Murphy. "To terminate your CFO 'cause some people on the board got their feelings hurt 'cause they were bluntly told, 'You do this, it's not a good idea,'" Murphy told board members. "And who are you going to get for a new superintendent if you're not going to listen to your current superintendent?"
Board members agreed to hire Cender Dalton as a financial consultant while they consider a search for a new chief financial officer.
