Jacksonville School District 117 will have a new Chief Financial Officer at the start of the new fiscal year.
Jamie Hadjan presided over her final meeting with the Jacksonville School Board on Wednesday after 7 years in the district. Hadjan started with the district on July 1, 2014 after working for the Staunton School District for a decade.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek says that Hadjan’s work as the district’s financial officer has put the district in it’s current good standing: “Jamie is going on to a great job. It’s closer to her home. It’s a much larger district, and she deserves it. She’s been here 7 years. I’ve been here 8, so I was only here one year without Jamie. Our previous bond sales, the actual referendum, and all of the construction projects we’ve done – Jamie has really been a critical piece in ensuring that all of those things were done on time and under budget. The strong financial position that we are in right now compared to when both of us came here, a sizable portion of that is due to Jamie Hadjan.”
Hadjan will now be heading down closer to her home in the Metro East, as she has taken a job with the Collinsville School District.
Ptacek says an in-house hire will be coming aboard on July 1st, as Richard Cunningham will be moving out of the classroom and into the office: “Mr. Cunningham is coming out of the classroom, and all I have received from him and the people that he has worked with, his administrators is that he is an incredibly intelligent and diligent individual that you can tell that he is going to ensure that he is a top-notch CFO. I’m very excited about having him. He’s got big shoes to fill with Jamie leaving, but I really think he’s going to answer up to that call. I think he’s going to be fantastic for the district.”
Hadjan said at the end of the meeting on Wednesday night that she is proud of the work that she has done with the district and appreciated the way the Jacksonville community embraced her when she came on 7 years ago.