The Bremerton School District is set to combine its human resources and finance offices into one shop, with one director, and save about $65,000 in the process.
But Dr. Aaron Leavell, who is in his second year as superintendent, said costs are not the main driver for the reorganization.
“It doesn’t hurt that there’s a cost savings that we can reallocate without the salary and benefits of an extra director,” he said. “It wasn’t the driver, but I think it’s nice that we can show some level of savings.”
Instead, it was the retirement last June of Human Resources Director Denise Zaske and the pending Dec. 31 retirement of Finance Director Wayne Lindberg, that presented Leavall with an opportunity to have one director for both departments.
“We had two critical people, two critical positions, with Denise and Wayne, with tons of experience and tons of history in the district, who both earned their retirement at almost the same time,” Leavell said. “It’s a pretty big deal. As you can imagine, those are both key positions to any school district.”
Under the new setup, approved unanimously last week by the school board, there will one department director known as the Executive Director of Finance, Operations and Human Resources. Some districts would call that person an assistant superintendent.
Come January, that slot will be filled by Garth Steedman, who is currently in charge of human resources. When Steedman took that job, he had served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and, most recently, as the director of human resources, technology and finance for the Eatonville School District.
“So, he comes to us with that skill set,” Leavell said. “Part of the plan is just having those two departments kind of become one in essence, even though they clearly have some distinct responsibilities. When (Steedman) took the HR job, a big part of his background was finance. Things came together that way for me by watching and hearing what he’s contributed so far in the school district. I believe this is a system we can implement with fidelity and give it a try.
Steedman won’t be entirely alone with his expanded portfolio, though, because Denise Kennedy is set to take on the new position of Human Resources Supervisor.
“We have half the school year for checks and balances to make sure our new system is working,” Leavell said. “That will give (Steedman) an opportunity to dive into the finance side of the house and transition with (Lindberg) to take the reigns of finance. (Steedman) won’t necessarily miss a beat because (Kennedy) will be handling the day-to-day human resources.”
Moving into next year, Leavell said he hopes to zero-in the finance department to see if he and Steedman can find any efficiencies there.
“In phase two, we will be taking time to really evaluate the finance, business and operations side of the house and, kind of like we’re doing with human resources now, ask how efficient are we right now and is there a way to be more efficient?,” he said. “That might mean adding new duties or tasks that could be shared or new positions that could be added. I’m not really sure, it’s part of a new era to meet the needs of our constituents and all the things the state is throwing at us with finance stuff.”
