BERNE — After Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s district business manager, Sarah Blood, stepped down after a two-year run, the district picked someone on staff, Stacy King-McElhiney, the school’s former treasurer, to replace her.

King-McElhiney said one of the reasons she decided to work at BKW was that it paralleled in many ways the Galway Central School District in Saratoga County that her children attend: a rural district with similar struggles as BKW, such as an ever-changing administration. She noted it is a has a comparable size, with an enrollment around 900 students.

“Back when I went there, I graduated from Galway, it was 1,200; consistent with here, enrollment is down a little bit all across New York State,” she said.

In the last decade, BKW has had a rapid turnover of administrators. Both the elementary and secondary schools had new principals appointed less than a year ago; Blood and Superintendent Timothy Mundell were appointed a little over two years ago.  

“Administration and teachers, they sometimes come and get experience, get their name on a résumé and they move on … ,” said King-McElhiney. “It’s a good opportunity to continue to add to the stability of this administration and this office,” she added, of choosing to take the position.

The board made a “provisional Civil Service appointment” at the end of July, and agreed to pay King-McElhiney $75,000, prorated, effective Aug. 21. The district treasurer who replaced is being paid $45,000, prorated, effective Sept. 8.

King-McElhiney worked for the accounting firm West & Company CPAs in Gloversville for 11 years, where she conducted auditing and accounting for several groups, school districts, and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services. She then began working as the treasurer for Hamilton Fulton-Montgomery BOCES in Johnstown, and stayed there for about five years before she started working for BKW in February 2016 as treasurer, shortly after Blood and Mundell began in 2015.

“When we took back our business office, and kind of got our ducks in a row,” said King-McElhiney, of the sort of stabilization that occurred in the business office as it was moved from its location at Capital Region BOCES in Albany to the BKW campus.

“The business office was in a state of flux,” she said.

As treasurer, King-McElhiney said she dealt with auditing, as well as receiving and disbursing funds. Now as business manager, she said, she will be dealing with things like the district budget and a proposed capital project on a broader scale.

The biggest difference, she said, is dealing with personnel and presenting things to the public, something her predecessor became known for when Blood conducted a “road show” of presenting the proposed 2016-17 budget at six different locations.

King-McElhiney is stepping up as the district nears a public referendum on a $15 million capital project, with a second item on the ballot to add $5 million to the school budget for upgrading technology in the secondary school. The school board voted in favor of putting these two items on the ballot for a Nov. 2 vote (see related story).

King-McElhiney said she was in favor of the project, feeling that its funding — 80 percent will be paid for by the state and the rest put on a bond — will support student education. She added that she also agreed with the additional funding for the secondary school, and that the funding would bring the schools up-to-date.

“Regardless of the electric conversations tonight, I still believe in it,” she said, referring to debates between board members as well as the audience. “I would hate to see the original project — the $14.8-15 million project — go through, and then not see the additional happen to the secondary school, it would be a shame for the high schoolers and middle schoolers.”

King-McElhiney will also be forming a 2018-19 district budget this coming spring. Her predecessor had worked on two prior budgets, including the most recent one which had a half-percent tax decrease. King-McElhiney, while saying she supports the board’s previous decision, was cautious of doing something similar again.

“I’m a little more conservative, where I fear that, if you are too rigorous with a budget, eventually you may have a shortfall,” she said.

She elaborated that, as an auditor, she has seen districts without BKW’s fuller reserves unable to support a shortfall if taxes did not increase incrementally over the years.

“I don’t see that happening here,” she added. “I think that we are on good ground;” she said, though, it it’s always a “consideration” when they decrease taxes from the prior year.

Former business-office secretary Renée Sherwin will take King-McElhiney’s place as treasurer. King-McElhiney said that Sherwin had also been working with her as deputy treasurer.

“She’s a quick learner,” said King-McElhiney. “So, she lacks treasury experience but she understands the working of the district, of the business office … .”

King-McElhiney said she hopes to support the school’s vision, and give back to the community she finds so similar to her own.

“I’m excited to be here,” she said. “I’m excited to stay here.”