Essentials of School Funding & Finance 2023-2024

Ryan Pendleton is the Executive Director of the Shared Services Alliance where he coordinates financial and operations support for northeast Ohio school districts through the Educational Service Centers of Northeast Ohio, Medina, and Lorain Counties.

Ryan is very active in state and federal issues concerning education and the potential impact on the students of Ohio. He is a member of the Fair School Funding Work Group, co-chairing both the Base Cost and Analysis and Support Groups.  As an inaugural member of the Work Group, Ryan made significant contributions to creating and advocating for Ohio’s new state funding formula.  His efforts contributed to the Fair School Funding Formula being included in the 2022-2023 Biennium Budget.

Ryan is a Leadership Akron Class 32 graduate and dedicated to serving the community, in particular the students across Ohio. Prior to working at North Coast Shared Service Alliance, Ryan was the CFO/Treasurer of Akron Public and Barberton City Schools and worked previously as a financial advisor.  

Ryan earned a BA in Business Administration from Malone College and an MBA from Cleveland State University.  

Meghan Sullivan-Homsher joined Frontline Education on Feb. 1, 2022. She was previously with the Ohio Department of Taxation and has been a great resource to Ohio schools.  Meghan had been with the Tax Analysis Division of ODT since 2005.  Her responsibilities have included providing analysis of proposed legislation and contributing to department publications.  Meghan’s specific areas of interest include property tax, school district income tax, and state/local revenue sharing. 

Stacy Overly provides direct financial services to clients. He has over 30 years of experience serving as school district treasurer, including 25 plus years of developing financial forecasting tools, and providing instruction and training opportunities attended and used by over two hundred of Ohio’s public school treasurers. Stacy works with clients to analyze trends and review local economic data to help determine a long-term operating strategy for the organization.  He holds his Master of Business Administration and his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Ohio University.

Mr. Seed devotes his practice to state and local taxation through the representation of boards of education in school finance matters, including tax valuation and classification, tax incentives, tax levy issues, and general financial issues. Mr. Seed practices extensively in administrative proceedings and litigation before county boards of revision, the State of Ohio Department of Taxation, the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals, courts of common pleas, courts of appeal, and the Ohio Supreme Court in real estate tax valuation and exemption matters. 

Todd Griffith has been Treasurer of Licking Heights Local Schools since June 2017. In this position, Mr. Griffith works with the Board of Education and administration to provide prudent financial management and leadership. The Treasurer's Office is responsible for all fiscal operations of the District. This includes budgeting, forecasting, investing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, financial reporting and serving as public records custodian.

Mr. Griffith received his undergraduate degree from Ohio University and completed his Treasurer’s coursework from the University of Dayton. He holds an active School Treasurer license.  Mr. Griffith is a member of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

Elena Sanders is a Senior Financial Manager at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) Office of Budget and School Funding, where she oversees the state foundation funding and other state funding programs. Prior to coming to that office, she was an Assistant Director in the Office of Federal programs. She has an Ohio Treasurer’s license and master’s degree in educational administration and supervision. Elena is the captain of the USTA 3.0 tennis team and this year the team advanced into the districts to compete in Cincinnati.

Paul Rutter is a member of Bricker Graydon's Public Finance group and practices in the areas of public finance and public law, emphasizing school and local government law. A significant portion of his practice is committed to serving as bond counsel for various school districts, municipalities, counties, townships, port authorities and other governmental entities in conjunction with the tax-exempt and taxable financing and refinancing of capital improvement projects including general obligation, special assessment, utility revenue and 501(c)(3) conduit financings. He also serves as underwriters' counsel and borrowers' counsel in similar financings.

Mr. Schall joined Bradley Payne Advisors September, 2021. Prior to joining Bradley Payne, Mr. Schall lead the creation and build out of the Shared Resource Center, a council of governments designed to help public entities in Ohio develop and meet their financial goals. Dan started in corporate communication and finance before serving as a school treasurer for 22 years.

Dan specializes in long term financial planning for the public sector delivering creative and collaborative approaches to resourcing public projects and building sustainable capital plans.

Mr. Schall is a Registered Municipal Advisor, registered with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). He currently holds a Series 50 license and is a licensed school Treasurer in the State of Ohio.

Mr. Schall received a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from the University of Dayton with a concentration in Finance and a Masters in Business Administration from the Ohio State University.

Patrick King joined Stifel in April 2009 after entering the public finance business in 2001 and has worked on hundreds of financings with a par amount of more than $4 billion. Mr. King’s experience includes financings for cities, school districts, libraries, counties, special districts, authorities, and park districts in Ohio. Mr. King received a Masters of Public Administration from John Glenn Institute at The Ohio State University and a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Dayton. He maintains Series 7 and 53 licenses. Mr. King is active in the central Ohio community and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Friends of the Library, and the Hospital Commission of Franklin County.

Tammy Hrosch is the EMIS Manager for META Solutions and leads a team of 26 EMIS specialists across five META locations. She has been reporting EMIS data since 2001 and is actively involved with the Ohio Association of EMIS Professionals serving on a variety of committees and former treasurer of the organization. She is a member of the ODE EMIS Advisory Council and is the developer and trainer of materials for the ODE EMIS Alliance grant. Tammy holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and holds an Ohio school treasurers license. 

Leanne Ashby-Sidley is an Area Coordinator for the Department of Education & Workforce (previously Ohio Department of Education) Center for Advancing Professional Supports in the office of Field Services.  She has been with the Department for over 15 years serving the State’s Region 8 of Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning, Portage and Summit counties.  Prior to becoming an Area Coordinator Leanne was a District Treasurer for 8 years, a corporate accountant and worked in banking.  

Brian currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Brian has a quarter century of senior leadership experience in Ohio’s state education agency guiding its fiscal and grant responsibilities.

Leading Ohio’s education agency team on grant and fiscal mandates for nearly two decades, Brian guides a large team with a multi-billion dollar portfolio of fiscal oversight mandates. Those mandates encompass federal financial compliance, internal control structure, risk assessment and subrecipient monitoring for the agency.

Prior to joining the state education agency, Brian served as an Audit Supervisor with both the Auditor of State (AoS) and the Ohio Department of Development.  During his tenure with the AoS, he led the agency’s auditing responsibilities of the Department Human Services at both the state and county levels.  While with the Department of Development, he was responsible for financial/programmatic compliance audits and technical assistance to numerous cities, counties and not-for-profits.

Brian is seen as a national leader in education fiscal policy, and he has presented at both state and national level conferences on both fiscal management and auditing in the education environment. 

TJ Cusick is the Treasurer for Worthington City School District. He has been with Worthington for 17 years and worked for a regional CPA firm prior to coming to Worthington. He is responsible for the day to day operations of the District, including budgeting, payroll and investment management. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Ohio, was an elected school representative for the Ohio GFOA, and recipient of the 2016 OASBO distinguished service award for his service providing continuing education for its members. He is originally from Steubenville, Ohio, married to Stacey, with one son and a killer pug.

Jack Webb worked for 16 years with the Auditor of State, Local Government Services, 8 years at Symmes Valley LSD and is currently the treasurer at Gallia County LSD.

James Rader is an Assistant Chief Auditor with the Ohio Auditor of State’s Central Region.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Ashland University and has been with the State Auditor’s Office since 2000.  He currently is one of three chiefs that oversee the 15 counties in Central Ohio covered by the Central Region.