Courtesy of San Benito High School:
Roseanne Lascano, San Benito High School District’s director of finance and operation, manages more than $143 million in operating budgets and construction projects at a school that is continuing a multi-year expansion and improvement of existing facilities.
More than $100 million of that budget is from voter-approved bond measures that have allowed the district to build, improve and update its academic and athletic facilities in recent years.
“Having stable finances frees up the program side of the house to concentrate on student achievement,” said the Fresno State University graduate who has worked at SBHS since December 2013. “No one is worrying about their jobs or in meetings discussing which programs to cut” because of financial concerns. “Staff can truly concentrate on the needs of our students.”
Superintendent Dr. Shawn Tennenbaum said Lascano masterfully juggles “a myriad financial responsibilities in a very professional way,” ensuring balanced budgets and providing projections of continued fiscal solvency.
Lascano provides direct supervision of all aspects of the District’s financial activities, including facilitating meetings of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee that meets monthly, reviewing and reporting on the bond measure expenditures to ensure they are in compliance with the projects authorized by voters in recent years.
While the district isn’t “too impacted by growth just yet,” Lascano said the new Science and Robotics Building now under construction will add a welcomed 12 additional classrooms. In the past couple of years, the district has opened state-of-the-art Career Technical Education and Visual and Performing Arts and Academics buildings, thanks to those voter-supported bonds.
“Our finances are in good shape and as long as the Board continues with its current philosophy of conservative budgeting and spending, our future is good,” she said. “There isn’t any fluff in our budget; our departments run pretty lean.”
