JCPS money man

It's a stressful job balancing the resource needs for 19 school buildings, 1,400 staff members and more than 9,000 students.

Jason Hoffman, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for JCPS, is the money man sitting in on district meetings, calculating out whether a proposal is financially feasible, and has been doing so for more than 10 years.

Hoffman oversees the district's $100 million budget, payroll, accounts payable, district audits and manages the operating departments - food services, transportation, human resources and facilities. He estimates about 60 percent of what he does is on the financial side and 30 percent is on the operating side.

Finance was a natural path for him, he said. He worked nights in high school and college at a small bank in Jackson, where he grew up and majored in finance at Southeast Missouri State University. He wound up in school finance after realizing his long-time aspiration of being a stock broker was really just a lot of sales work.

So he took a job in 1999 at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as a school finance consultant. For the year he was there, he worked with 120 districts with their state finance reports. From there he worked for St. James for three years and Hallsville and Centralia for three years.

In 2006, he joined the team at JCPS and said it's been the perfect fit.

"I think it's that I feel I have an impact on kids lives and their futures," he said. "When I'm having a bad day, I go to Southwest Early Childhood Center. That's where it's at. The kids are getting so much there."

Moving from three small districts to a large one is challenging not on the budget side, he said, it's sorting out challenges that come with managing the needs of thousands of people, instead of a couple hundred.

Being a member of the Missouri Association of School Business Officials (MOASBO) and the Public School Retirement System of Missouri had paid dividends in his career. He was a state-elected board member of MOASBO for seven years and held every office available. Within the organization he's obtained a network of school finance officers that are eager to help each other out.

"One of the best things is that everyone is willing to share," he said. "Anytime I run into something, I can get answers on how they've handled similar situations."

He's currently vice chairman of the teacher retirement board, which has also been a great learning experience. They handle a roughly $40 billion pension program serving more than 240,000 active and retired employees of public schools, so they have access to the best financial advisers.

Hoffman also received the 2011 Missouri School Business Office of the Year award, which he called a real honor because the organization has done so much for him.

Hoffman said he really owes thanks to his staff at JCPS. They're incredibly good at what they do, he said, and make it easier on him. The administration understands the limitations of the budget, so they come to him with reasonable requests.

"It's the right fit for me," he said. "I love the people I work with."

Outside of the office, Hoffman and his wife, Amanda, spend a lot of time at his son's sporting events. They also attend and volunteer with The Crossing in Columbia.