> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Thoughts on the new Greater Clark CFO



At a recent Greater Clark County Schools board meeting, the board voted to hire a new chief financial officer without even a single question. I could not understand why the board would vote to approve hiring someone in one of the most important positions in the school corporation without any reservations — at least none expressed publicly.

Supposedly, Greater Clark is in a budget crisis and there may well be more cuts in funding in the years to come. It is crucial that the corporation have someone who is well qualified and experienced to give much needed direction in fiscal matters — someone who understands accounting and can search for ways to save the corporation money. Someone with experience.

The young man who was hired for the position, Thomas Galovic, has a stellar resume in the field of education. He has been a teacher, assistant principal and principal. Yet, he has no real experience in accounting or finance.

He even admitted, in his recent interview with The Evening News, that his background for this position consisted of working on “a large building budget,” while principal at Whiteland Community High School, and taking some “financial courses while attaining his superintendent’s license.”

This, in my opinion, is certainly not enough experience to be CFO of Greater Clark. His salary will be about $110,000 a year plus perks — the same as was paid to Frank Collesano, I believe.

While Mr. Galovic appears to be a fine young man, he is also totally unqualified for this position. He would most likely make a great principal or assistant principal and he says he has aspirations are to be a superintendent. But, he is definitely not a CFO.

Mr. Collesano said he is going to work with him during his last 20 days with Greater Clark. Having been a certified public accountant myself for the past 35 years and a CFO for almost 20 years, I can attest to the fact that it takes a lot longer than 20 days to become a good CFO.  

It is highly unlikely that any large corporation in America would hire someone with Mr. Galovic’s credentials to be their CFO. So, why would Greater Clark — one of the largest school corporations in the state — hire someone with little or no background in finance or accounting?

The school system will not hire someone to be a teacher unless they have a degree in education and are certified in a particular subject area. The school system would not hire a teacher with a degree in math to teach French. They would not consider a teacher with only a bachelor’s degree to be a principal. They would not hire a principal to serve as an architect for a construction project. So, why would Greater Clark hire a principal to be the chief financial/accounting officer?

Nowhere on Mr. Galovic’s resume posted online does it even mention the word accounting or finance. Nowhere.

I do not mean to belittle Mr. Galovic himself — he is a well-educated young man. But, his area of expertise is education — not finance. He cannot rely on the purchasing manager or deputy treasurer to do his job. He should be providing direction and guidance to them — not the other way around.

We appear to be putting the financial success or failure of our school corporation into the hands of an unqualified and inexperienced young man. I certainly hope Mr. Galovic proves me wrong.

— Alice Butler, CPA, Jeffersonville



Build the east-end bridge



Mr. Michael Dalby, I regularly cross the Ohio River. Yes, regularly.

Every Monday through Friday, I cross the John F. Kennedy Bridge at 8:30 a.m. Traffic is very heavy in the right southbound lane and the reality that I witness every weekday is that nine out of every 10 cars takes the I-64 E/I-71 ramp, going east to work.

Everyone agrees that with more lanes you can get people and goods across the river easier with far less congestion. It is clear to Hoosiers, if the east-end bridge was built first, then traffic wanting to go east from Indiana would be diverted away from the JFK Bridge. Most of the growth in Kentuckiana is east of Louisville and east of Jeffersonville. The east-end bridge would be the best first choice to accommodate such growth. Closing the gap in the beltway around the Louisville metropolitan area wouldn’t hurt either.

Former County Judge/Executive David L. Armstrong once said that “the last thing Spaghetti Junction needs is more spaghetti.” I whole heartedly agree with him. The opponents of the east-end bridge have successfully diverted attention away from its construction by complicating this issue with the need for a simultaneous two-bridge build approach. They know by advocating this alternative approach with its outrageous price tag, it will delay the financing and construction of the east-end bridge for a long time. Their plan continues to be effective.

With Kentucky struggling to get its budget balanced, the current $14 trillion federal deficit, 10 percent unemployment and the new national health care program to pay for, getting the two bridges simultaneously financed through the federal and state budgetary processes has proven impossible, with no success in sight. There just isn’t enough money to go around. Now, that is reality.

Sometimes you have to break up a large project into smaller manageable pieces in order to afford getting things done. So too, should this simultaneous two-bridge build project be broken up, so the east-end bridge can be built first.

Indiana has already surveyed the approach road to the east-end bridge. Former Representative Ann Northup, of Kentucky, secured initial funding for the that bridge on the Kentucky side. It’s time to unleash that “unbridled spirit” from Kentucky and let Indiana change the yellow sign on Ind. 265 that reads, “No Bridge to Kentucky” to “Finally, an east-end bridge to Kentucky.”

— Tom Yingling, Jeffersonville