Central Business Office Expands to Aid Schools

Champlain Valley Educational Services prides itself on providing high-quality services and support for local school districts. When schools’ needs arise that CVES doesn’t currently help, then CVES works quickly and effectively to provide support and fill that gap.

This happened within 2023 when schools needed extra support with their Business Offices. CVES’ Central Business Office created a shared-business model, where CVES employees can aid schools with all aspects of their business office. This shared-business model can eliminate stress for school districts. There are multiple employees in BOCES who are trained in business office functions. They can become a backup for critical parts of each
school’s operations while reaping the benefits of BOCES aid on the service.

HELPING SCHOOLS

“When you look at the various sizes of districts within the North Country, some schools need to have a larger business office while others are much smaller,” CVES Business Manager Hayden Reidy said. “This service can help districts when they need someone for AP functions, but they don’t need a full-time person.”

Currently, Plattsburgh City School District and Northeastern Clinton Central School District utilize this service for payroll and human resources support. The CBO can also support schools with budgeting, accounting, purchasing and HR functions, such as Civil Service reporting, workers compensation and attendance.

Chazy Central Rural School District utilizes the service through a mentorship and training program. Reidy frequently meets with Chazy’s business manager and treasurer to guide them through different processes.

“We are moving outside of Clinton County and into Essex County soon, so it’s full scale,” Reidy said. “We are essentially just absorbing schools’ business offices and
doing those functions for them.”

CREATION OF CBO

As of April 2023, the first CBO employee, School Personnel Specialist Kelsey Monette, was brought on to aid NCCS. As the need for the service has grown, so has the number of employees within the CBO. Since then, Reidy joined CVES and has helped expand the services to other school districts.

Reidy wants to make sure the integration of CBO services is done well and right. He corresponds regularly with other BOCES business managers around the state
for advice.

“BOCES and local districts needs’ are different, so it’s nice to have CBO staff strictly dedicated to helping schools,” Reidy said.

With CBO, there is greater piece of mind for school districts and employees.

“Everyone’s trained on all different needs, and we can help each other,” Reidy said. “If something were to happen in payroll or there’s an issue, we have staff to help fill in. This way schools aren’t behind on payroll for employees, and payroll workers can take vacations without putting in two weeks of work into one. It alleviates stress all around.”

CBO IN ACTION

Monette works in NCCS helping with their payroll and HR.

“It was nerve-wracking, but exciting,” Monette said about being the first employee to work for CBO. “I was able to sculpt my position to best fit the needs for the district and CVES.”

Monette helped streamline a couple different processes, which expedited the process overall. One example was collaborating with NCCS’ district clerk to create an onboarding process, and now their system runs smoothly for new hires.

“It’ll be great for schools to see that when you hire a personnel specialist, a treasurer or a business manager, they have not only the employee doing the work, but they have an entire staff behind them,” Monette said.

She also started a printed training manual that contains information about payroll and HR functions. If she comes across a new issue, she puts it into the manual as a future reference. This manual has been passed onto other new employees, and Reidy has brought it to other schools to show examples of efficient processes.

“Kelsey Monette is the perfect example of seeing growth in employees. She started as a personnel specialist, and she got very good at her job very quickly,” Reidy said. “She’s taken the next step, and she’s going to be a school district treasurer, so that’s awesome. It’s nice to see that we can grow within our own department.”

 

Read more 2023-2024 Success Stories here.