Kettering board of education names interim finance chief for next school year

Credit: FILE

Credit: FILE

KETTERING — The chief financial officer’s job in Kettering City Schools will be filled in house starting June 1 as the district has hired an interim treasurer for the next school year.

Assistant Treasurer Rick Taylor will assume that role when Cary Furniss vacates his job to work for the Warren County Educational Service Center.

Kettering’s board of education had posted the job this spring and had received five in-state applications, but opted not to go forward with those candidates, officials said.

“Rick’s been our assistant treasurer for some time,” board President Toby Henderson said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence Rick. We’re thankful that he is with the district and willing to serve as our interim treasurer.

“With Mr. Furniss leaving, we want to be very deliberate about who our next permanent treasurer is going to be,” Henderson added. “And so, Rick will step in and do a fabulous job. We’ve got a great staff in the treasurer’s department … We’ve got lots of confidence in Rick.”

The search for a permanent treasurer likely will start in early 2024 with the goal of making a selection by the end of that school year, he said.

Furniss was approved by the Kettering board in December 2021, the first time the district hired a treasurer in seven years.

Taylor served in an interim capacity briefly in Fairborn schools before coming to Kettering in 2020 after working with the Greene County school district for five years, mainly as assistant treasurer, according to the district.

His current annual salary is $103,000, but will increase to $161,000 starting June 1, records show.

Taylor has more than 20 years of experience Ohio public school finance, working the majority of that time in Greene, Montgomery and Warren counties.

He has also served as assistant treasurer in Lebanon City Schools, where he worked from July 1998 to February 2002. Taylor also worked at the Shared Resource Center from March 2014 to March 2015, serving as the treasurer the for the Dayton Regional STEM School.

In between those two jobs, he was treasurer for the Painesville school district near Cleveland.

Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Kent State University.

About the Author