What is a School Business Official?

What is a School Business Official?

School business officials – or SBOs for short – are key members of a school district’s administrative leadership team. Whether a finance or business operations professional, food service or transportation director, an SBO’s role is to secure, allocate, and effectively manage resources to support the educational goals of the school district. 

SBOs can impact the community in big and small ways; from efficient and effective use of district funds, to ensuring students have access to transportation and nutritious meal options, to getting a new school or stadium built – Ohio's SBOs are crucial to these essential functions.
 

Career Paths

Career journeys for school business officials are as varied as their personalities. Finance and operations professionals come from various educational and career backgrounds. Some work their way up within a district over a period of years from an operations or finance support positions into a business manager or treasurer leadership role. Others are hired directly into those roles due to related experience from other public or private industries. 

While there is no college degree specific to school business management or school finance – business and finance degrees – along with additional hands-on job-specific training towards licensure from associations like OASBO – can prepare aspiring school business officials for success.

To read more about job roles in the school business profession, click here.
 

Licensure:

Business Managers and Treasurer/CFO roles require both a college degree and a license from the Ohio Department of Education. Other roles, such as Transportation Supervisor or Food Service Director, require extensive field experience and can also require other specialized certification(s). Continuing education is expected in all of these roles.

To read more about Licensure requirements, visit our Licensure/Credentialing page.

For those interested in the Treasurer/CFO license, OASBO has an approved licensure pathway program, combining education, assessment and capstone projects. To learn more, visit our Pathway page.

Available Jobs:

OASBO hosts a job board where Ohio public school districts can post openings. While we do not guarantee that all open Ohio school jobs are represented here, it should offer you a glimpse of the types of job roles that are available, and some of the duties required. Visit the Careers > Job Seeker section of our website.
 

Mentoring:

For new school business officials, OASBO offers a mentoring program. For more information, visit our Mentoring section.

Interim Treasurers:

Are you available to serve in interim treasurer roles as the needed? Click here to fill out a short form to add you to the list.

Is your district in need of an interim treasurer? Click here to access the list of those willing and available to serve in interim roles.