Park City School District Business Administrator Todd Hauber is leaving after ten years on the job. His last day is Friday.
Hauber has served under three superintendents: Ray Timothy, Ember Conley and now Jill Gildea. He lives in the Salt Lake Valley and says he hasn’t minded the commute to Park City, although higher gas prices recently gave him pause.
He has taken a new job as Business Administrator for the Granite School District. Hauber says it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.
“I wasn't even in the marketplace,” he said. “I was enjoying my work here in Park City. Love being in the area, I love the people I was working with. But a good friend said, ‘Hey, you need to apply for this position in Granite.’ I said, 'okay, good friend, I'll go ahead and honor that request.' And doggone it, I got the job.”
His commute, starting Monday, is about 10 minutes each way, giving him more time at the office to start computing a $984 million budget that serves 67,000 students in the Granite district compared to Park City’s $90 million budget with not quite 5,000 students.
During his time in Park City, Hauber helped the district figure out creative ways to finance new school construction. While taxpayers approved $79 million in general obligation bonds securing a 2.8% interest rate last year, Hauber led the way to secure about $40 million in lease revenue bonds earlier this year at a 3% interest rate, catching the tail end of low rates.
“When you’re working at the local level, so like working with Park City School District, there's many more funding streams that are available, property tax being probably the most obvious of those changes,” Hauber explained. “And so that brought in different conversations and different strategies. And it was exciting to come into that realm and talk about what's the best thing we can do for our community, they're gonna have to pay for it in the end. So, we want to make sure that it's what they're looking for, and what they expect out of the school system. So that was exciting to have those conversations and figure out those financial strategies."
Hauber has also been successful helping to negotiate a multi-year contract with district educators. Although the current contract goes through the 2024 school year, he says the board will begin negotiations a year early next spring.
He is also proud of being recognized by the National Association of School Business Officials for the preparation of the annual budget.
“And we received it now three years in a row,” Hauber said. “I just got my email yesterday that this last budget is there. So that's a really good accomplishment. It's acknowledging that we're trying to be connected with our community. It's showing fiscal responsibility with the dollars that are available, and that were quite transparent and how those dollars are available.”
Given his background working of the state board of education, Hauber has also been the go-to person in the school district to cover the state legislature, something that usually isn’t part of the job.
“I think I came into the position here in Park City already connected to the legislature because of working with the state Board of Education,” Hauber said. “I'm also the president-elect for an associate business officials’ association that I'm a member of. And I'm the liaison with the legislature for that as well. So, it kind of came with me, I don't know that it's normally the responsibility of a business administrator. But I was already loaded up with it. And so, the board allowed me to continue in those functions.”
And while it was controversial at the time, Hauber says he still thinks the school board make a good investment when voting to approve the purchase of a home for the superintendent to live in.
A number of interviews have taken place with prospective candidates for the position, and according to district spokeswoman Heidi Matthews, the board of education could possibly name a new business administrator as soon as its next meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 18.
