Fall School Finance Workshop 2021-2022

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. 

Melissa Kandel is a Senior Audit Manager with the Auditor of State’s financial audit group in the Central Region. The Financial Audit Group is responsible for conducting financial audits of all public entities as required by Ohio law. Melissa has overall responsibility for audits in Knox and Licking Counties.

Melissa has been employed with the Auditor of State’s office since 2006. She is a graduate of Muskingum University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting and Business. She has been a Senior Audit Manager for four years. 

Nicole Donovsky serves as general counsel to school districts with an emphasis in labor and employment issues, including contract negotiations, grievances, arbitrations, FMLA, ADA, workers’ compensation, evaluation, nonrenewal and termination. Nicole also advises school districts in the areas of career-technical education, student issues, civil rights, public records, abuse reporting, ethics, board policies and meeting requirements. In addition, Nicole assists clients with crisis management strategies and advises clients on conducting sensitive investigations.

Nicole is chief legal counsel to the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. She has presented extensively on issues affecting public education. Nicole also serves on Bricker Graydon's Southeast Ohio team.

In addition to proactively counseling clients, Nicole has represented school districts before a variety of courts and administrative agencies throughout Ohio, including the Ohio Supreme Court.

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. 

Katie Johnson is the Executive Director of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials. Katie is the seventh Executive Director and the first woman to lead the organization since its inception in 1936.

Katie was the Deputy Executive Director for OASBO prior to being named Executive Director. In that role, she served as legislative lead and in-house legal counsel for the association, keeping staff and members abreast of legal and regulatory compliance issues in school business. In addition, she has served as the chief learning officer, developing curriculum to support OASBO’s strategic plan and the Ohio school business profession.

Katie also serves on boards and committees focused on public finance, including serving as a member on the Finance and Appropriations Committee for Columbus City School District, as Treasurer of the Confluence Community Authority, and as past President of the Ohio Chapter of Women in Public Finance.

Katie holds a bachelor's degree in Business Finance from the University of Colorado, a master’s degree in Education from The Ohio State University, and a law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Rick Manoloff has served as legal counsel to Ohio school districts for more than 26 years on bond, note and lease financings, ballot issues, contracts, and other matters; chairs his law firm’s Ohio K-12 Public Schools Finance Team; co-authors the Ohio School Law treatise published by Thomson Reuters each year; co-presents the “Legal Update” at OASBO’s Annual Conferences; is called upon to draft levy and other legislation; served on a school board; and has written numerous articles for OASBO’s SBO over the years.  In the community, he served as President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and Cleveland Bar Foundation.

Kent joined RBC Capital Markets in 2002 after serving as the Chief Operating Officer for Cincinnati Public Schools. Prior to coming to Cincinnati, Kent served for nine years in finance, policy and administrative positions in Delaware state government. His last position there was Associate Secretary of Education for Finance, Policy and Administrative Services.

Kent specializes in education and local government transactions including tax increment financing (TIF). He also administers several large structured pooled financing programs in the State of Ohio.  

Kent currently holds Series 7, Series 24, Series 50, Series 53, Series 54 and Series 63 licenses.  Mr. Cashell holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Economics from the University of Delaware, specializing in mathematical economics and econometrics.    

Mr. Prcela has provided expertise to school systems, municipalities, not for profits, and higher education issuers for over 20 years in Northeast Ohio. Michael has successfully completed over $2 billion of transactions in his career. As lead investment banker on hundreds of transactions, Mr. Prcela has developed unique insight into market driven structures and concepts. Michael served as lead banker on Ohio’s largest qualified school construction bond issue in 2010, and the largest Ohio school district bond issue so far in 2016. Mr. Prcela has passed the Series 50 Municipal Advisor Representative Examination.

Prior to joining Sudsina & Associates, Prcela was a senior vice president of investment banking with Piper Jaffray & Company from 2012 to 2016 and previously served as Vice President at Fifth Third Securities for 12 years. Mr. Prcela is an honors graduate from Miami University of Ohio.

Ryan is a Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager at RedTree Investment Group. He has over 25 years of investment experience in the fixed income markets. Specifically, over the past 19 years, Ryan has been assisting public entities and other agencies with their fixed income investment needs. At RedTree, he is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investment process along with communication of the unique investment strategies for the firm’s clients.

Ryan obtained his undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Kentucky and his MBA in Finance from Xavier University. He has received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a current member of the CFA Institute. He currently serves on the Ohio GFOA Board and is on their Education Committee. 

With many years of experience in the investment industry, Joe has had exposure to both equity and fixed income markets. Much of this time has been spent working with fixed income products and portfolios. He brings a focused and detailed approach to portfolio management.

Much of his day-to-day involves working closely with current clients and fostering new relationships. His experience in portfolio management combined with the knowledge of relevant sections of Ohio Revised Code gives him the ability to serve RedTree’s clients to the fullest.

Originally from Tampa, FL where he spent most of his childhood, Joe now resides in Northern Kentucky with his wife, Rachel, their daughter, Rosie, and two dogs, Overton and Sable. He enjoys spending time with friends and family, hiking, golfing, and when time allows, traveling the world.