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Local school district wins national award for finance

Sandy Mutchler, Chief Operating Officer for Eagle County schools, and Chelsey Gerard, school district Finance Director earned a Meritorious Budget Awards. Of the nation's 13,500 school districts, only a handful earn this honor.
Special to the Daily |

EAGLE — Sandy Mutchler earned another MBA, and this one almost no one achieves. Mutchler, chief operating officer with the Eagle County school district, and Chelsey Gerard, the school district’s director of finance, were among a handful of school financial officers across the nation to earn a Meritorious Budget Award.

For the 2014-2015 budget year, only 137 of the nation’s 13,506 school districts applied to the Meritorious Budget Award. Of those, only 10 Colorado school districts earned the award, and Mutchler and Gerard were among them.

The two were honored for their excellence in budget presentation during the 2015–16 budget year. The award focuses on developing, analyzing and presenting a school district budget, and applicants are screened and reviewed by professional auditors.



The award program is sponsored by Voya Financial for the Association of School Business Officials International.

“We are honored to have received this recognition of our budget presentation materials,” said Jason Glass, superintendent. “This is the first time we have applied for this prestigious award and it is highly unusual to win in the first year. The committee has recognized the level of competence and diligence that our COO Sandy Mutchler and Finance Director Chelsey Gerard and their team have applied to our budgeting process over the past year. I am very proud of their work and achievement.”

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The MBA is designed to help school districts:

Present clear budget guidelines.

Promote communication between departments and the community.

Encourage short- and long-range budget goals.

Support effective use of educational resources.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 or rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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