I worked for a School Board for 4 years as an Accounting Clerk and then Insurance Clerk. The entire time I was in college (working days and going to school 4 nights a week), I was told that once I got my degree, I'd get a promotion and my salary would be based on the certified teacher salary schedule, which would have been twice what I was being paid as a clerk. I was paid hourly as a clerk and overtime was forbidden. A position was created, Internal Auditor, and it was promised to me when I started my last semester of school. Two months after graduation, I was told that I needed to “pay my dues as a clerk”. Um, yeah, I'd been paying my dues for over 3 years and doing the bosses job on top of that. He told me that I needed the experience more than the money. What?!?! When my supervisor and I had this conversation, the board was in the process of hiring several IT tech's. Basically people to hook up DVD players at schools, none of the complicated network or security stuff, just hooking up DVD players. None of the new techs hired had degrees in IT, in fact three of the five they hired had High School Diploma's and the other two had certificates from the local technical school. I found out that day they were all being paid off of the certified teachers salary schedule. I got up from the conference table, climbed on top of my desk and took my diploma off of the wall. My boss asked what I was doing and I told him flat out “If you don't pay for that piece of paper, you don't get to use it. I will do exactly what is on my job description and nothing more.” Looking back on that day, I was being petty and I shouldn't have done it, but I can't turn back time. Normally, I would NEVER use the phrase “That's not in my job description.” I think that's just wrong, but at that point in time, I felt betrayed, hurt and just plain mad! I went to work for a CPA at night to find out if I wanted to go that route, since I couldn't see a future at the school board. I loved it and six months later I quit and went to work for my former employer/current partner. All that being said, I left sort of bitter at the time, but it all worked out for the best in the end, at least for me anyway.
As for the school board job, it wasn't hard. In fact, I could do the bulk of the items on my job description in two days a month. If they have decent software, the budgets aren't difficult. Fund accounting is a challenge if you aren't familiar with it, especially if they have several Federal programs, but it's kind of fun. But God help you, if you should have new construction funded by USDA bonds while you are learning the job. It's a nightmare. But the perks of the position are excellent. The retirement is great. The health insurance is great. The number of days off is great. If that district handles payroll the way Louisiana does, then just figuring out how teachers get paid is an eye opener. Most teachers don't understand how they get paid and they certainly don't factor in the amount the tax payers fork over for their benefits. One piece of advice, know Excel like the back of your hand. I would recommend the book “Excel: The Missing Manual”. It will save you so much time with budgets, especially federal budgets that might have a state component to them.
If I had to make a list of pros and cons, then the top of the pro list would be the benefits and the top of the con list would be the politics! Like it or not, school board jobs are full of petty politics. Every Principal thinks he is the King over his little fiefdom and can do as he pleases with whatever money is allocated to him/her. Yeah, they really can't do that. Legally, you can't buy new basketball uniforms with text book money. Student activity funds are interesting. It took me a while to come up with the word interesting, and I use it for lack of a more accurate phrase that I can post on a public forum. For several years, I warned my supervisor about things that were going on with the student activity funds at a couple of schools and he flat out told me to “shut up about it because it was none of my business”. After I left, one of the principals and a school secretary were arrested for “Misappropriation of Student Trust Fund Monies”. The School Board's external auditor finally pulled one of the invoices that I had been questioning for years.
You mentioned that you were in PA. Did you know that you can look up salaries online? I found this link. I'm not sure the info is 100% correct because I saw several people with High School Diploma's making $190K.
https://openpagov.org/
Good Luck to you and I hope your experience in School Board Accounting is better than mine.
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