UMaine Student Learns Business Side of Education
Contact: Kay Hyatt (207) 581-2761
ORONO, Maine — When University of Maine Business Administration and Accounting major Nathan Holmes began his senior year last fall, he never dreamed he would do his internship in a public school system. Thanks to an innovative collaboration between UMaine and eight area school systems, more undergraduate and graduate students specializing in fields such as management, finance and marketing will get hands-on experience in running the business operations of K-12 public schools. In turn, they will use their developing business savvy to help central office staff approach tasks and problems in different ways.
Maine public education — a $1.7 billion enterprise, with 679 schools and 202,025 students in 2003-04 — is big business, and schools in the Penobscot River Educational Partnership (PREP) offer a microcosm of the varied and complex intricacies of running a public school
In addition to course work and being captain of the Maine Black Bear Track Team, Holmes spends a minimum of 10 hours a week working in School Administrative District 22’s busy central office in Hampden. The district consists elementary schools in Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport, two middle schools and the grade 9-12 Hampden Academy. It has approximately 300 employees and 2,300 students housed in seven facilities, and a budget of $18.8 million.
“I was surprised by all of it,” Holmes says of the school business operations. “It’s a completely different kind of accounting. The amount of detail is tremendous.”
Holmes is a 2001 graduate of Massabesic High School in Waterboro. His parents, Maryleigh and Andy Holmes, now live in Westbrook.
Under the supervision of Emil Genest, SAD 22 Assistant Superintendent for Business, Holmes is learning the fundamentals of school business operations. He is playing a major role in helping prepare the district’s 2005-06 budget, attending sessions where administrators present their needs for the next school year, compiling and comparing fiscal data, and producing a preliminary budget for school board review, all under intense deadlines.
Holmes, who says he hopes to take some of the load off his colleagues, also works closely with John Russell, the payroll and human resources supervisor, and district account Heather Johnson, to learn the nuts and bolts of those important jobs. He has learned to prepare the biweekly payroll and is being exposed to some Human Resources functions, such as injury reports, pay scales and contract details.
“So much hard work goes on in the central office, and there’s so much pressure,” says Holmes. “These are very busy people, and their knowledge about what’s going on — down to each individual employee — is amazing.”
Since the central office is short-staffed, Holmes is taking on responsibility and doing actual professional work to get the job done, according to Genest.
“Nate has done a wonderful job of learning and performing the accounting and payroll functions in a public school environment,” says Genest. “Also, he quickly sized up the political side of school business, recognizing the importance of working with a publicly elected school board and balancing the best interests of students and taxpayers.”
In addition to being a willing and motivated co-worker, Holmes has given the central office staff some new ideas, such as how to better present numbers in spreadsheets, making budget material easier to read and understand, according to Genest.
The internship is enabling Holmes to apply the theory he’s learning in his Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting course at UMaine. “Putting theory to use for real is rewarding and leads to better learning,” he says. “These are lessons I will remember.”
Holmes, whose goal is to work with the FBI, will enter graduate school this fall at
West Virginia University, where he will work toward a master’s degree in accounting and a certificate in forensic accounting.
The business internships in Penobscot River Educational Partnership schools were conceived by Robert Cobb, Dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and Daniel Innis, Dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health. Holmes is the first Business student to intern in a Partnership school.
‘I enjoy every bit of the job and will definitely recommend it to other students,” Holmes said. “Working with a limited amount of money to do what’s best for employees and students is challenging, and it’s a great incentive to come up with new ideas.”
Partnership members include: Brewer, Bucksport, Old Town, and Indian Island schools, School Union 90 (Alton, Bradley, Greenbush, Milford), School Union 91 (Orrington, Orland), SAD 22 (Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport), Union 87 (Orono, Veazie), United Technologies Center in Bangor, Maine Child Development Services/Penobscot County, and the UMaine Colleges of Education and Human Development, Business, Public Policy and Health, and Liberal Arts and Sciences.