School district CFO Steve Chodes resigns<br />3:28 p.m. CDT April 17, 2014<br /><br />Springfield Public Schools' top financial officer is stepping down.<br /><br />Steve Chodes, chief financial officer since 2008, is expected to work through June 30. He has accepted a job offer with the EducationPlus company in St. Louis.<br /><br />Board president Denise Fredrick said Chodes has provided valuable guidance and leadership.<br /><br />""He'll be a big loss,"" she said.<br /><br />Chodes wasn't available today because he was out of town at a conference. He is expected back at work Monday for the board's first 2014 budget work session.<br /><br />Superintendent Norm Ridder said Chodes submitted his resignation this week. He said Chodes and his wife Debbie has strong family ties to both Springfield and St. Louis and he joked that the pull of the St. Louis Cardinals may have been too much for the avowed baseball fan.<br /><br />Chodes oversees ""all financial and business operations"" of the 25,000-student district. That includes accounting, budget, investments, payroll, purchasing, risk management, food services, transportation, custodial services, facilities and bond projects.<br /><br />""His departments are doing very well,"" Ridder said. ""...To stay on top of that is a big challenge.""<br /><br />He is a member of Ridder's cabinet, serves as treasurer of the school board and functioned as the point-person when the district went through a state audit a few years ago.<br /><br />""He's very well respected,"" Ridder said.<br /><br />Fredrick, who joined the board just after the audit was released, said Chodes was responsible for responding to requests from the state audit team, providing documentation and responding to the many findings in the final report.<br /><br />""It was just amazing the amount of work to respond to that,"" she said.<br /><br />During Chodes' tenure, the district won numerous financial awards for clean audits and budget transparency.<br /><br />""He has us in a good place,"" she said.<br /><br />Chodes is the second highest paid employee in the district, making $136,200 a year. Only Ridder, who has been in the top job for nine years, makes more.<br /><br />Ridder, who is retiring at the end of the school year, said he notified John Jungmann, the incoming superintendent, of the resignation. Jungmann starts July 1 but will be heavily involved in the hiring, down to writing the job description.<br /><br />""Dr. Jungmann is expected to be front and center in all of this."" Ridder said.<br /><br />However, because the resignation happened late in the school year, Ridder said there's a chance that Jungmann may turn to an interim CFO until Chodes' replacement can be found.<br /><br />Eleven years ago, the district hired Chodes as a controller. He worked as the director of finance, under other CFOs, and took the top financial job six years ago.<br /><br />Chodes was part of a small group of employees, including the late human resources director Danny Fuller, who worked for a propane company in Lebanon before moving to Springfield.<br /><br />In early 2011, the board took the unusual step of issuing Chodes a separate employment contract, similar to the one for Ridder. It establishes a personalized salary schedule and spelled out compensation and responsibilities.<br /><br />At the time, the board said it was a way to maintain a long-term relationship with the CFO, which officials said was in high demand elsewhere.<br />