Q2 Treasurer/CFO Planning Series 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.  

Jennifer is a Fiscal Operations Coordinator with Shared Services Alliance (SSA) where she provides fiscal support to school districts and governmental agencies across Ohio. Jennifer also serves as the CFO for Spencerville Local Schools. Prior, she was the Treasurer/CFO of Benjamin Logan. Before public service, she worked in the financial industry for 10 years. Jennifer also currently serves on the OASBO Board as the At Large Director of Transportation.

Tami has been the EMIS/State Testing Supervisor at Four County Career Center in Archbold, OH for 11 years. Prior to that she worked at an ITC assisting districts with their student software systems. Tami has a master’s degree in Career-Technical Education with a minor in Business/Human Resource Management. She and her husband  enjoy spending time with their blended family of 8 children and 13 grandchildren. 

Janice Allen has been the Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Trotwood-Madison City School District for the last eight years.  Prior to that, she worked for Dayton Public Schools for 20 years, the last eight years as the Assistant Treasurer. She is actively involved in OASBO serving this year as the Chair of Volunteers and the President of the local Miami Valley chapter.  She is a sports enthusiast and loves watching basketball, football and track. She has two sons Sean and Evan and a daughter-in-law, Tia.  Her claim to fame is that she was born one of a set of triplets, identical sister and fraternal brother.

Mr. McCord is a shareholder and managing director of Ennis Britton, a state-wide school law firm.  Mr. McCord regularly counsels public boards of education on a variety of education law issues, with an emphasis on labor negotiations, employment matters, and construction issues.  Mr. McCord has many published works, presentations and submitted court briefs to his credit.

Alex Solove has been with Equitable advisors since 2013. He currently serves as a Vice President out of our Cleveland office.  Alex and his team assist school districts and municipal entities across Northeast and Northwest Ohio. 

Megan is a partner with Weston Hurd in the Education and Labor & Employment groups located in Columbus, Ohio. She focuses her practice on providing general counsel to public school districts in board governance, personnel, and student matters. Megan advises education law clients on complex issues including discipline, due process, public records, Title IX, board policies and procedures, collective bargaining, arbitration, parliamentary procedure, residency and custody disputes, social media, Constitutional rights, and discrimination concerns. Megan also assists districts with collective bargaining needs, including contract review, negotiation, and interpretation and enforcement of collective bargaining agreements. Megan has successfully represented clients in arbitrations and in unfair labor practice charges before the State Employment Relations Board (SERB). Megan has represented clients before the U.S. Department of Education office for civil rights in matters involving claims of discrimination involving students, and has defended employers against complaints of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC). Megan frequently provides training to clients on a variety of employment and education related matters including human resources, Title IX, board governance, sunshine laws, and personnel-related matters.