The Foundations of SBO Success: Career Starts & Disaster Preparedness

Summary

School Business Insider: The Foundations of SBO Success: Career Starts & Disaster Preparedness

Released on July 8, 2025, hosted by John Brucato, featuring Maria Perry, a recently retired school business administrator from Monmouth Regional High School, Titan Falls, New Jersey.

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of School Business Insider, host John Brucato engages in a comprehensive discussion with Maria Perry, a seasoned school business professional with over three decades of experience. Maria shares her expertise on two pivotal topics: launching a career as a School Business Official (SBO) and developing effective disaster preparedness plans, drawing lessons from Hurricane Sandy.

Maria Perry’s Journey and Inspiration

Maria begins by recounting her unexpected transition from accounting to school business, influenced by a supportive mentor. “[...] she just was pushing me out of the nest. And I was able to get a job as an assistant BA in a very large district. And she was right,” Maria explains (02:16). Her 33-year career is a testament to the impact of mentorship and strategic career moves within large districts.

Launching Your Career as an SBO

The first focus of the episode revolves around Maria’s article, Back to Basics, Ready Set Career Part One, a career guide for aspiring SBOs. Maria emphasizes the importance of thorough preparation and research when seeking SBO positions.

Key Insights:

• Researching the District: Maria advises candidates to delve deep into district audits, board meeting minutes, and budgets to understand the financial health and operational dynamics. “Read the audit. Because if anything's going to happen, it's going to be shown in the audit” (05:31).
• Networking: Reaching out to current SBOs can provide invaluable, candid insights into the district’s culture and expectations. Maria shares her personal experience, stating, “[...] I chose not to apply for the position because it appeared that [...] it was going to be a lot of work” (09:30).
• Work-Life Balance Considerations: Candidates must assess whether the district’s demands align with their personal lives. “Look at the time that they open and look at the time that they close the meeting” (11:25).

Notable Quote: Maria highlights the importance of fit over the allure of a position: “It could be everything you want on paper, but if [...] later hours into the evening, maybe that's just not a good fit for you” (10:54).

Transitioning Between Districts

Changing districts, whether moving from a small to a large district or vice versa, requires careful consideration of several factors:

• Responsibilities: Larger districts may offer specialized roles, allowing SBOs to focus on specific areas like facilities or technology.
• Compensation vs. Commute: Maria discusses the trade-offs between higher salaries and longer commutes, noting, “Money isn't everything because if you're sitting in the world's worst traffic twice a day for over an hour, is it worth the extra X amount to do that?” (14:19).
• District Culture and Stability: Understanding the district’s long-term prospects and cultural dynamics is crucial. “Is this something I can live with or is this something that is not going to get better?” (14:51).

Notable Quote: Maria advises, “Ask a lot of questions, know what your obligations are, and understand the day-to-day operations” (20:11).

Disaster Preparedness: Lessons from Hurricane Sandy

The second article discussed is Maria’s case study, Back to Basics, a Case Study in Natural Disaster Planning, which delves into the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and its impact on school districts.

Key Insights:

• Immediate Response: Maria recounts the devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy, leading to prolonged school closures. “Almost the entire year... it was a whole school year” (24:09).
• Infrastructure Resilience: Ensuring building robustness against natural disasters is paramount. Maria emphasizes securing roofing and maintaining power supplies, noting the critical role of generators installed through prior referendums.
• Insurance and Financial Planning: Adequate insurance coverage mitigated financial losses, particularly the loss of food services in the cafeteria (26:44).

Notable Quote: Maria underscores the necessity of proactive planning: “Make sure you have emergency plans, keep in contact with key stakeholders, and ensure your infrastructure can withstand disasters” (27:23).

Testing and Enhancing Preparedness

To ensure readiness for disasters, Maria outlines practical steps for SBOs:

• Regular Evaluations: Conduct periodic assessments with insurance companies and facility managers to identify vulnerabilities.
• Generator Testing: Regularly test backup power systems to guarantee functionality during outages.
• Community Coordination: Maintain open lines of communication with local authorities and emergency services.

Notable Quote: Maria advises, “Do walk-throughs, engage with professionals, and ensure your backup systems are operational” (29:58).

Advice for Aspiring and Experienced SBOs

For Aspiring SBOs:

• Comprehensive Research: Maria encourages diligent homework, utilizing checklists, and engaging in state mentoring programs. “[...] attend roundtables, attend professional development, ... they have a wealth of knowledge to guide you” (31:59).

For Established SBOs:

• Continuous Review: Regularly revisit and update disaster plans, maintain up-to-date contact lists, and assess ongoing risks. “Making a point of revisiting things, whether it's once a year or every six months” (33:28).
• Documentation: Keep critical information both digitally and physically accessible in emergencies.

Final Thought: Maria emphasizes the balance between professional responsibilities and personal well-being, urging SBOs to make informed decisions that support both their careers and personal lives.

Conclusion

Maria Perry’s deep dive into career initiation and disaster preparedness offers invaluable guidance for both newcomers and seasoned professionals in the school business sector. Her experiences underscore the importance of preparation, adaptability, and strategic planning in achieving sustained success as a School Business Official.

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“I encourage everyone to listen to these podcasts,” Maria concludes, reflecting her passion for knowledge sharing and community support within the field.

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References:

• Transcript Sections and Corresponding Timestamps

Transcript

[John Brucato]

You're listening to ASBO International's School Business Insider. I'm your host, John Brucato. Each week on School Business Insider, I sit down with school business officials and industry experts from around the world to share their stories and explore the topics that matter most to you. Find out what it means to be a school business official and get your insider pass on all things school business. Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today I am thrilled to welcome Maria Perry, recently retired school business administrator from Monmouth Regional High School in Titan Falls, New Jersey. Maria is a CPA and SFO and the author of two insightful School Business now articles, which is which we'll be covering over today's episode. Back to Basics, Ready Set Career Part one, a first of its kind career guide for aspiring school business officials and Back to Basics, a case study in natural disaster planning, detailing lessons from Hurricane Sandy and how districts can prepare. We'll cover two essential areas for every SBO how to properly launch your career and how to build robust disaster response plans. Whether you're just starting or managing risk in your district, these foundational insights will pay dividends. And Maria, welcome to the podcast. I'm happy to have you today.

[Maria Perry]

Hello. How are you?

[John Brucato]

Doing really well. Glad to have you back on and really excited to kind of explore those two articles that you had published in In School Business. Now you've been a a stored member of the editorial advisory committee which we we share membership on. So that's been great to work with you alongside those those folks there. But I'm really looking forward to kind of diving into these two really specific articles that I think are really going to paint a good picture of what it means to be a school business official. Not just starting out in your career, but even if you are a seasoned school business official, you may not be met with disaster planning all that often. So I'm sure you can share a lot of great insights. But you know, before we launch into too much of that, can you tell us a little bit about your background and really what inspired you to write those two articles for School Business Now?

[Maria Perry]

Well, sure. So my background is that I started out, I'm an accountant, we'll say by trade, and then I very luckily fell into the school business working in a school district. And when I was working as a junior accountant, my boss, the business administrator, she said hey, I know you're in graduate school. What are you thinking about doing? And I said I don't know, as every 20 something would do, right? And she said no, really think you should be a Business administrator. And I said, sure, why not? And she started giving me work. And then she told me about it and then handed me one day, handed me the want ads and said when want ads were in the newspaper and said, I think you should start looking for a job. And that was it. And it wasn't that I was so terrible that she needed to get rid of me. She just was pushing me out of the nest. And I was able to get a job as an assistant BA in a very large district. And she said, if you can get a job, get a job as an assistant, because you'll do everything as the B.A. but the focus, you know, the spotlight won't be on you and get a large district, because if anything's going to happen, it's going to happen in a large district. And she was right. And so it went from there and it just kind of yada, yada, yada, 33 years later.

[John Brucato]

Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. And you know, your point about the large district, did you find when you started, did you have an opportunity to kind of ease into the role a little bit more? And what I mean by that is I think back to my first career or my first job as a school business official, and that was at a much larger district than where I'm at now. And what I'm getting at is when I look back on when I started, there were multiple different layers in terms of business office, who was responsible for what. And I feel like because you had more people, everybody was laser focused on really kind of one or two things. Specifically, rather than everybody wearing multiple hats, did that structure give you a little bit more time to kind of ease into the role rather than if maybe you started a small district and had to do a little bit of everything?

[Maria Perry]

You know, it did and it didn't. The lovely thing about a large district is exactly as you said that. So first, for example, the assistant superintendent's office, they did the assa, which is the application for state school aid, which is the count of all of the students in the district, which is what drives how much state aid that you get. So when I had left the large district and went to a much smaller district, you had to do it. So I, you know, I knew of the report, but since I really didn't have a handle in it, I kind of had to figure it out myself. So that was one of the learning curves, was that if you're in a large district and you go to a smaller district, be prepared that you're going to be it.

[Unknown]

Right, right.

[John Brucato]

So I want to talk about your kind of Back to Basics series here, as I'll call it, for school Business now, starting with the first one I had mentioned the kind of the career guide. What really inspired you to write that article?

[Maria Perry]

So I was. A couple of things happened. So last year at New Jersey asbo, I gave a presentation on how to read the audit. And there was one section when I was talking about reading the audit, I had said, I'm going to give a little bit of advice here and say, if you're thinking about switching careers, if you're thinking about switching districts or anything, read the audit. Because if anything's going to happen, it's going to be shown in the audit. And I've also been a mentor for new business administrators. And a lot of times the new business administrators, they'll say, well, you know, I want to be here, but I'm thinking about going somewhere else. And I would give the advice that I was given from my mentor was to go to a board meeting, you know, and now read the minutes. So it just was. All of that was kind of around my head and I said, you know what I need? I think this will be a really nice article for Back to Basics because it's stuff we talk about, but if you just have a little checklist or a guide, you can at least go back to it and look at it.

[John Brucato]

And who did you have in mind when you. You wrote the article you had mentioned during your presentation? And maybe exploring this article, career changers, were there new SBOs in mind or maybe just those exploring the path of becoming a school business official who maybe in the business office as a treasurer or an account clerk or something like that.

[Maria Perry]

I wanted it to be for every business official. I wanted it to be for someone that was maybe a school auditor that was auditing a school district and saying, hey, I think I can do this. Because that's how we've gotten a lot of business officials, is that they were auditors and then they transitioned over. But I also wanted it to be for the seasoned professional who's maybe been in a district for 10 or 15 years and now may feel that they're only going so far and they want a new change or something is going on in their personal life and they want a new change, whether it's they have more time to focus on their career or they want to do something different. So that's why I, as much as I originally thought that it would be for someone brand new, I just kind of expanded it to give it to everyone. To have access to look at it.

[John Brucato]

You know, you also emphasized researching the district before your interview. You had just mentioned looking at audits, looking at board minutes. What tips can you offer to help candidates stand out? I mean, looking at those things is one thing, but what can you offer to help interpret and really make you the finalist in an interview session?

[Maria Perry]

Being prepared, looking at the website, reading the minutes, you know, even going to a board meeting, just making sure that you gather as much information as possible about the district. You know, if you know the current business official, talk to them, say, hey, I'm thinking about applying, you know, for the position. You know, what are your thoughts? You know, if you don't know the structure of, let's say, the business office or what particular additional duties that you're responsible for, you know, you can look at someone's contract, but it's a, you know, it's a contract. Contracts, you know, change all the time. So, you know, just in that aspect of try and get as much information to show that you have a vested interest in being the next business official.

[John Brucato]

And I'm sure reaching out to the sitting business official gets you a pretty good subjective view of the culture and what you could theoretically be walking into. Looking at audits, looking at board minutes and budgets, is very much broad public objectivity and there is some room for interpretation. But if it's somebody that you trust and you have a relationship, I'm sure you can get a really good insight in terms of what your day to day is going to be going to be like. Have you, have you had experience with that? I mean, any comments on that?

[Maria Perry]

I did that so many years ago. I was thinking about switching and there was another large district that was open. So I called the business official and I said, you know, I know that you're leaving. You know, tell me a little bit about, you know, what's going on. And the official said, as an example, well, you know, we used to have committee meetings with the board. They used to be in the afternoon, but now we have new board members. So they are at night. So it's more nights out during the month because you have your two regular board meetings. But now you also have these committee meetings as an example. The other thing was that the board was thinking about doing a lot of facilities projects, you know, taking on additional work. And since it was a multi school district, it would have been, you know, five or six elementary schools and a high school, which is a lot of construction. So those things that they had talked about with me, eventually I chose not to apply for the position because it appeared that while it would have been a great challenge, it just was going to be a lot of work and a lot of additional time. And I was still in graduate school at that time, so it was going to, it wasn't going to be a good fit. Something was going to have to give and I didn't, I wanted to stay focused to finish getting my degree.

[John Brucato]

I think that's such a great point.

[Unknown]

Is, is fit.

[John Brucato]

I mean, it could be everything you want on paper, but if when you kind of look at it in terms of your day to day and to your point, maybe later hours into the evening, maybe that's just not a good fit for you. I mean, I mean, we talked briefly offline of my last episode last week where I was monologuing the whole time and how I turn into a pumpkin after 9pm so those little things do mean a lot when you have to do that month over month, week over week. So something to consider.

[Maria Perry]

And that is something to consider about. You know, look at when you read the minutes, look at the time that they open and look at the time that they close the meeting. You know, if you have meetings that are closing at 11:30 at night or even closing, you know, later, you know, just keep that in the back of your mind of, you know, unless there's a radical, radical change, this may be the status quo of how the board operates.

[Unknown]

Right.

[John Brucato]

And even now I half joke with my superintendent and my board because things are running smoothly here, but it hasn't always been that way in my district. And I've heard horror stories of what board meetings used to be like and they used to go until 12:1 in the morning. And I say to them, if we ever get back to that point, you may have to look for a new school business official because I don't know that I can function well into the night like that.

[Maria Perry]

Yeah, and that's the other part of it is when you, you know, when we talk about the balance and you know, you had talked about that in your prior podcast, is that when you get out at such a late hour and I think my all time number one late board meeting was 3:30 in the morning. It was my last meeting before I went to another district and you're just not able to function. You, you don't give 110%, you're exhausted. You, you know, I would have a headache and it'll take a couple of days to rebound right from that. So that's a lot of work that either you're going to try and do and do it wrong or have mistakes or not get to because you're so miserable, you're spending half your day in your office saying how miserable am I?

[Unknown]

Right.

[John Brucato]

You know, I reflect on that too. For the late meetings, I mean, this is self inflicted, but I have a pretty long commute now. I've moved in the last few years so I have to now factor that in both ways. And now it's a long commute home and then I have to get up at the same time, theoretically the next morning and come back in. And you make such a great point. You're lamenting on how tired you are and how foggy you are and you're really not giving 110% as you otherwise would. So those are great points as well.

[Maria Perry]

And you just added another point about looking for a new position is the travel time. You know, if you're going to go to another district that is a very large district, that's more money, more opportunities, they're going to give you tuition reimbursement, all of these great things. But as you said, it's a, you know, hour drive in the worst known traffic, you know, known to mankind. You don't have a great, you know, summer schedule. The board meetings are twice a month, et cetera, et cetera. And you're expected to be at, we'll say, you know, a conference or something. Yeah, it sounds lovely. But you're going to spend a lot of time in the car or you know, at home trying to play catch up.

[Unknown]

Right.

[John Brucato]

And I think to your point, money isn't everything because if you're sitting in the world's worst traffic twice a day for over an hour, is it worth the extra X amount to do that? You know, maybe earlier in my career, when I was younger, I would say yes, it doesn't matter. But would you? I feel like as you mature in your career as a human and have a family, your priorities shift. So at this point I'd rather sacrifice the extra money and maybe tuition reimbursement to get that time back in my commute.

[Maria Perry]

The other thing is also, you know, what you have with your current district. So whether it's just a one time event, as you said, that maybe it's a change in personnel, a change in board that is not making you happy, you know, and bringing the consideration of switching, that also is a big thing of saying, you know, is this something I can live with or is this something that is not going to get better? I don't think it's going to get better. So I need to, you know, do what's best. Or is it that mentioned earlier that. So you know what, my kids are grown. I now have time to either I can stay where I'm at or I can expand my experience. And also, I really wanted to work district or move back closer. You know, I've always wanted to work in the district, in my house, I can walk to work, I can do all of those things. So I don't mind taking a step down because it'll keep me in the game. But also I have freedom to do what I want to do.

[John Brucato]

Yeah, that resonates so much with me. It's because I think about my long commute and if it weren't for how much I love working for my district, I'd likely probably would move somewhere because the incentive to work here is I've been here for a while. My board, my superintendent are great, my staff are great. So it's a really nice place to be. But know to your point, people can leave and boards can turn over. So it may not always be that way. But, you know, if I could only move my, my home and my work like 30 minutes closer to each other, it would just be like the perfect situation. But it, but to your point, it's something I'm willing to tolerate now because it's, it's that extra time in the car is worth the, the, the time I have at, at, at work and, and at home. It's just everything is balanced to a, to a degree right now.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Maria Perry]

And some people enjoy the long car rides because it's decompression time that they can talk, they can listen to a podcast, listen to a book on tape. You know, all of that. So when they get home, it's not the immediate, you know, I need five minutes to regroup and then we can have a conversation. You've already transitioned yourself to I'm going home.

[John Brucato]

Another great point. Point, Maria.

[Unknown]

My.

[John Brucato]

I would, you know, just speaking from personal experience, my, my previous commute was 12 minutes, which is, is great on paper, but I was still in work mode for 20 minutes when I got home, you know.

[Maria Perry]

Right, right. No, I, I do understand. Exactly. Because you leave work and you say, okay, I'll just finish it when I get home because I don't want to stay in the office. And then you get home and it's, let's say it's four, four o' clock for argument's sake. And next thing you know, it's six o' clock because you've been on the computer for two hours just doing that continual. I'll just get caught up. One more thing.

[Unknown]

Yep.

[John Brucato]

And it's always one more thing. And then you're. You're burnt out and you go to bed and you do it all over again.

[Maria Perry]

Yes, exactly.

[John Brucato]

So I want to talk a little bit more about transitioning between districts. We kind of touched on it throughout our conversation so far. But, you know, it's common to move from small to larger districts or vice versa. Can you give a little bit more insight and some guides to those decisions? I mean, we talked about the change in responsibilities and the kind of hats you wear, but what else can you kind of tell our audience in terms of what should you really be considering? If you're jumping from a small to a large or a large to a.

[Maria Perry]

Small district, it comes back to what do you want, you know, what, what do you want to do? Do you want to get the experience in a large district that maybe in going to roundtables or talking to your colleagues or, you know, going to a conference and you say, well, you know, I've never done a facilities project. I really am not involved in technology. And technology is, you know, one of the bigger areas or, you know, something as simple as, you know, I'm thinking about, you know, getting a graduate degree or maybe I'm thinking about being a superintendent. And I just want to be offered opportunities to do that. You know, it just is what is going on in your world that you feel that you want to do that. And again, it could come back to money. It could be that, look, I know I'm only going to make this amount of money. The district only has X number of dollars. So if I want to increase, because on the flip side, I have, you know, family members, you know, going to school, attending school, or you have other additional expenditures and things that you need to take care of. You know, I need to, you know, go and see if I can get more money in my position and stay in my position, because that's important right now.

[Unknown]

Right.

[John Brucato]

So how can school business officials kind of assess the Goldilocks districts that fit both career ambition and work life balance? I mean, I think that's what most people would aspire to have, but it really is challenging to strike that balance and that harmony. How do you kind of go about finding out if a district really does that for you?

[Maria Perry]

You know, ask a lot of questions, you know, if. When you go into the interview, ask a lot of questions, you know, don't let them interview you. You interview them, you know, Find out about, you know, okay, if, you know, what are my obligations as far as, you know, committee meetings, what do I have to do as far as, you know, day to day? Give me the organization of the business.

[Unknown]

Office, regular meetings, administrative meeting, team meetings, you know, administrative council meetings, outside activities of. If it's a multi school district or a multi high school district, am I required to be a graduation things, you know, snow days, you know, if the district is closed, does that mean that we have to go in on a snow day, you know, negotiating contracts? How many contracts do you have? Are they up for negotiations? What has been the history of it all? Little things like that, that where you may be, you know, nervous and anxious that you forget about asking the question and then you get into the district. Oh, yeah, we haven't had a settled contract in tomorrow and a half years.

[John Brucato]

So I just want to switch gears a little bit now to your second article. This focused a lot on disaster preparedness, but what motivated you to share the case study on Hurricane Sandy that was such a devastating time for the, for the Northeast and really the Eastern seaboard in total? What, what made you kind of share your story and really share some insights in terms of what you can do to be prepared for those natural disasters?

[Unknown]

So Robert Saul, who's the EAC editor, he had sent out an email and Cindy Rahman, she had mentioned, and this was last summer, that in her area that they were being affected by tornadoes. And she had said that it was having an effect on the school district with all of this natural disasters. And a light went off and said, you know what? We had that, you know, in 2012 with Hurricane Sandy.

[Maria Perry]

And I had mentioned to Robert, I said, hey, can I know it's, you know, many years later, I said, but do you think that I could write an article on it? Because a colleague of mine who was in charge of Seaside Heights, it was horrible what happened. And he said, yeah, you know, go right ahead. So I contacted my colleague, Kevin o', Shea, and we had a really nice conversation about it. You know, what happened then and you know, hindsight 20 20, and that's how it came about.

[John Brucato]

Can you give us a little more insight in terms of what happened with Kevin and Seaside Heights? I mean, what were like the big things they were dealing with when that hurricane hit?

[Maria Perry]

Well, the school is on a barrier island. So for New Jersey, as an example, the ocean met the bay, so the water came from both sides and caused an extreme amount of flooding. So that was the first thing, was that the school, because everybody got told that they had to evacuate. So it wasn't that you were putting sandbags anywhere. I mean, this was, you know, this was just, okay, we'll leave and, you know, we'll come back. Because about a month earlier there was a. Another hurricane that didn't have any damaging effects. So when this happened and it was devastating, that's when, you know, they had to realize, we've got a school that's pretty much can't open on time. But it's even worse because there's so much damage that you have to look at it. But the island was closed off.

[John Brucato]

And how long were they shut down for? Approximately.

[Maria Perry]

Almost the entire year. I think that that was October. They reopened in that following September. So it was a whole school year. So you had school districts that were out, but they were able to reopen in November or so. Like my district, we were out. I think we opened the end of November. So it was two and a half weeks. So through the teachers conference and other things going on, we were able to make up the time. But that wasn't as bad as, you know, some schools were out almost the entire year trying to get, you know, rental. Other schools that would rent them space or trailers because the work just was not going to happen in a couple of weeks.

[John Brucato]

And what kind of damage did you experience at your district? Like roofing issues? Flooding. What were like the big ones?

[Maria Perry]

Just roofing. I mean, we were very, very fortunate. So the big thing was we were out of power. So we. We didn't have power for, I think, almost four weeks, so.

[John Brucato]

And no, you didn't have generators?

[Maria Perry]

No, I now have a generator. Thank you to a 2022 referendum. Yes, thank you, taxpayers. But we didn't have power. So we lost all the food in the cafeteria and in all the foods rooms because we have culinary classrooms. We also had some roofing that had come off, so we just had to fix that. And then we had minor amounts of flooding. So it wasn't as bad. It was more of the electricity just trying to get the electricity turned on because it was, I think, almost 60% of the state didn't have electricity. So there was a priority listing that it was hospitals, schools, and then going down the line. But even still, it was trying to get the power company just to say, please let us know when it's going to be ready. And it wasn't that they could just flip a switch. They were downed power lines that the lines had to be fixed first. And it was this whole, you know, things had to happen first before it you know, finally happened. But we were very lucky that we did get it on and we just moved forward from it.

[John Brucato]

You did mention something that stood out to me. Hindsight is certainly 2020. When you were looking back in that era, did you find that your insurance was up to. Up to date and was able to cover everything you needed it for, or did you have to supplement with other funds?

[Maria Perry]

No, we were very fortunate because, as I said, we didn't have a lot of damage. And the only thing was the loss of the food. I don't know. I don't think FEMA covered it because we also had FEMA involved. So whatever major issues there were, which there wasn't so much, but FEMA was willing to. You could apply to get assistance from female. I think with the food, that was the only thing that was the loss and that was a couple thousand dollars.

[Unknown]

Got it.

[John Brucato]

In the article you were talking specifically about Seaside Heights. How did they bounce back thanks to planning? And what were your kind of key takeaways for school business officials?

[Maria Perry]

Well, the first thing was that, you know, make sure that you have, you know, insurance. The second item, what Kevin had talked about was that he had to get all of his paperwork so he could run payroll because it was the end of October. So now, you know, years later, everything is either on the web or in a cloud. But you still need to have certain pieces of information. So if there's bad weather coming or something coming, you know, pay attention to it. You know, as much as you don't want to be Henny Penny and say, oh, bad weather's coming, I have to prepare for a disaster.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Maria Perry]

Just have a checklist and say, what do I need to have so I can be ready? Or just double check the servers, double check the cloud, and even check with your software companies to say, hey, if we go dark, can I still get on?

[Unknown]

Right, right.

[John Brucato]

You listed some practical steps like reserve cash, insurance accuracy, vendor list, contact folders. What else is out there? What do you think is most overlooked when it comes to disaster planning?

[Maria Perry]

Well, if you don't have power, you can't do anything. Make sure you have access to electricity. Also keep in contact with your co workers. As far as, can someone get into the building? Can people get into the building? I know that some buildings were used as shelters. Just see if your building is going to be used as a shelter. Have someone from the district there. You know, the other part of it is that also just make sure that you speak with your insurance company, you know, talk to them. Make sure that you Have a plan for even all of the employees to be ready that look, you may be called in or you may not be able to do things and you know, keep in contact with the county office because they're the ones that are going to drive everything forward. The other part of it is keep. Usually your superintendent will keep in touch with the police chief.

[Unknown]

Right, right.

[John Brucato]

So how can school business officials test their preparedness? We talked about kind of some best practices. What could be overlooked, but what can, what can they do before a disaster strikes to be as prepared as they can be? I mean, tabletop simulations come to mind, maybe bringing in outside experts to evaluate your processes. You tell me, what do you think is really kind of those best approaches to being prepared for when disaster strikes?

[Maria Perry]

So you can have your insurance company come in and do an evaluation of your building and make sure that let's say that the windows are okay, the roof is okay. Just something along that line of better planning of, you know, how are our roofs doing, you know, as far as facility wise? Also look at, in discussing everything with your in house facilities manager, you know, do we have leaks anywhere? What are the most vulnerable areas as far as, you know, your buses, let's say your transportation, you know, do you have to put the buses if you're in a flood area, do you have to put them on higher ground? Do you have access to gasoline? Because you'll have to, you know, gas up the buses, etc. For if you have to continue to function. But I think doing walk around speaking to your insurance company, having as you said, professionals come out and talk to you about, well, if you did this, this may help out. And again, talking about generators that, you know, our generator is connected in. So it's not that you have to say I have to go out and get some fuel and run it, but also do test runs with the generator. Shut everything down and make sure the generator turns on.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[John Brucato]

Because it's one thing to have a big piece of equipment sitting outside is another for it to actually perform when you need it to.

[Unknown]

Right.

[Maria Perry]

Yeah. It's the same thing with electricity. You know, that's lovely that, you know, you're now home and everything if you're out of power and you don't have a little halo device or something to connect your computer to, you know, and The Panera has 1400 people in the.

[John Brucato]

Panera and you have Internet speeds from 1994.

[Maria Perry]

Exactly.

[John Brucato]

So, so, so as we wind down here, what can you offer as a piece of advice for someone who may be entering the Profession or maybe on the fence of thinking to take the plunge into being a school business official.

[Maria Perry]

You know, as we talked earlier, do your homework. But also, you know, the old fashioned pluses and minus, you know, worksheet, you know, I've done that multiple times in my career. What are the advantages to this and what are the disadvantages? And you know, think it through and talk to people, talk to trusted advisors, talk to colleagues, you know, reach out, even go to your state organization. You know, talk to your state organization if you're a current sitting ba Even if you're thinking about being a new BA in New Jersey. New Jersey, asbo, they are the ones that manage the mentoring program for new business officials. So, you know, you can talk to and say, look, I'm thinking about going into this field and they have a wealth of knowledge to guide you where you need to go. You know, also, you know, if you're a current BA or if you're a vendor that's thinking about going, you know, jumping into working in a school district, you know, attend roundtables, you know, attend, you know, professional development, you know, if you're part of a GIF or a hif, go to those meetings because that will give you a lot of information of, to help you make your decision.

[Unknown]

That's great.

[John Brucato]

And what about for existing school business officials who may be multiple years into the career, what's the most crucial step they'll take today to be better prepared, whether it's for their career aspirations or for crisis?

[Maria Perry]

I think just, you know, making a point of, you know, revisiting things, you know, whether it's once a year or every six months. And, you know, I've definitely fallen into the trap of, okay, it's on the list. Y' all get to it.

[John Brucato]

Yep.

[Maria Perry]

You know, eventually I'll get to it and then I don't get to it. And then as you said, it's, you know, we've got 48 hours to make sure. Did we buy salt? You know, snowstorm is coming, you know, did we buy salt or where the plows are the plows working, etc. Etc. And then it's, you have to stop everything and do it. Just keep, you know, you have a monthly list or, you know, even if you have a notebook of, you know, disaster planning, what worked, what didn't work. Here's important phone numbers, here's important emails, just little things like that. You know, not everything has to be electronic.

[Unknown]

Right. Great point.

[John Brucato]

Well, Maria, thank you so much for joining me today and it was lovely to speak to you, and congratulations on your recent retirement.

[Maria Perry]

Oh, thank you. Thank you, John. It's always a pleasure. I love this podcast, and I encourage everyone to listen to these podcasts.

[John Brucato]

Ah, music to my ears. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to School Business Insider. Make sure to check back each week for your favorite topics on school business.