Essentials of School Funding & Finance 2024-2025

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.  

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. 

Aaron Rausch is the Chief of Budget and School Funding at the Department of Education & Workforce (previously Ohio Department of Education), where he manages an agency budget of more than $17 billion and administers the state’s school funding program. In 2019, Aaron received the Dick Maxwell School Finance Award from the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. Prior to joining ODE in 2014, Aaron worked for the Ohio Office of Budget and Management as a budget analyst in the education section. Aaron started his career in state government as a performance auditor, focusing on school district performance audits at the Ohio Auditor of State's Office. Active in his community, Aaron serves as an advisory board member on the Columbus and Central Ohio Children’s Chorus Foundation, sings with the Choral Union at Capital University, and rides in Pelotonia every year. 

Brad has over 26 years of experience in public finance, serving as Bond Counsel for state/local governments and nonprofit organizations and in tax-exempt leasing and stadium financings.  He is regularly called upon to address governmental and quasi-governmental councils and boards on public finance issues, including the State of Ohio, GFOA, OASBO, counties, municipalities, treasurers, trustees, and the Ohio Municipal League. He is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (former Tax-Exempt Leasing Panel Chair) and the Association of Governmental Leasing & Finance (Salmon P. Chase College of Law - J.D. 1996; Xavier University - B.S.B.A. 1992).

Marvin Founds is a director and municipal advisor with Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors, LLC. He has been an education finance professional for over 30 years, serving as treasurer/CFO for various school districts in Ohio and later as managing director for a large Midwest capital markets investment banking firm serving assorted education and traditional local government clients.

Through his longtime involvement in the field, Marvin has developed a statewide reputation for his range of knowledge in school finance. He has been a speaker and panelist at many conferences and workshops on topics related to public finance, capital planning, school district revenue and expenditure forecasting, millage studies and bond issuances. 

Marvin earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a Finance concentration from The Ohio State University, and has two Master’s Degrees from Ashland University - Business Administration and Education.

Mr. Laskey is a Director in the Cincinnati, Ohio Municipal Finance office of RBC Capital Markets.  

Mr. Laskey has worked at RBC Capital Markets since July of 2006.  Andrew has worked with hundreds of local governmental entities throughout Ohio on debt offerings including school districts, cities, counties, townships as well as the State of Ohio.  Additionally, Andrew has presented at numerous conferences on a variety of topics related to municipal bond issues and the bond underwriting process.

Andrew currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Municipal Advisory Council, a repository of statistical information relating to Ohio municipal issuers and their securities.  Mr. Laskey formerly served on the Board of Trustees for Clovernook Center for the Blind in Cincinnati.

Mr. Laskey attended the University of Cincinnati and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Honors-PLUS business program.  Mr. Laskey is a Registered Securities Representative, registered with the NASD and SEC 

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.

Jeremy is a senior manager with the Ohio team of Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors. He has over 15 years of Ohio school experience, serving as treasurer/CFO and other administrative roles, as well as experience performing financial and compliance audits for government entities. During his time with both Baker Tilly and school districts, he has participated in numerous bond and note issuances.

Jeremy received his B.A. from Spring Arbor Universityin 2005 and his Masters of Business Administration from Mount Vernon NazareneUniversity in 2009.

Jeremy is also active in his community as a member ofthe board of directors for the Big Walnut Chamber of Commerce.