Amy Vandevender has resigned from her job with the Fox C-6 School District as chief financial officer, Superintendent Paul Fregeau announced in a Nov. 14 letter to staff members.
Vandevender had held the job for less than two years.
In his letter, Fregeau said the district will not hire a new CFO and instead will hire a chief operations officer to oversee the finance, transportation, food service and maintenance departments.
“We believe it will allow for better efficiency and oversight of the operational aspects of our district,” he said.
Fregeau said he hopes to have a recommendation for the COO job ready for the Board of Education to vote on in January.
He said the COO needs to be a “great leader of people” with “knowledge and experience in public education.” The COO also needs to be a detail-oriented person and a good communicator.
Vandevender submitted a resignation letter to the Fox Board of Education on Oct. 31.
“I, Amy Vandevender, do hereby voluntarily and irrevocably submit my resignation from all employment with the Fox C-6 School District, effective October 31, 2024,” she said.
Vandevender began working for the Fox district in May 2023, replacing John Stewart, who retired at the end of the 2023-2024 school year after working for the district since March 2020.
Vandevender’s salary for this school year was $145,000.
Kelly Bracht, assistant superintendent of human resources, said the district will pay Vandeventer $114,924.62, or about 79 percent of her salary, for this school year.
“We wish Amy well in her future endeavors,” Fregeau said in his letter.
Fregeau also said Christina Rufkahr, the Fox district’s director of business and financial services, will lead the finance department for the remainder of this school year.
Rufkahr’s salary at the start of this school year was $89,619, and school board members voted unanimously during a Nov. 12 closed meeting to pay Rufkahr a stipend for performing the CFO duties from Aug. 5 through Nov. 12.
Since Aug. 13, Rufkahr has been attending school board meetings in place of Vandevender.
The board also voted unanimously to reclassify the director of business and financial services position to executive director of finance and increase Rufkahr’s salary to $113,000.
Rufkahr earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Missouri Baptist University, according to Fox officials.
Before coming to Fox, she worked as the financial director for the De Soto School District for 21 years, and before that, she was the district bookkeeper for the Sunrise R-9 School District for two years, the district said.
“Having served as the district’s director of business and financial services since July of 2023, as well as her previous 21 years of experience in school finance, she is well-suited to lead this department,” Fregeau said in his letter.
Vandevender was working as a client accounting manager at Cushman and Wakefield before coming to Fox.
She also worked in accounting and finance positions at Washington University and Webster University.
She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
“Amy brings a strong financial background with her to Fox,” Fregeau said when Vandevender was hired.
During the 2023-2024 school year, the Fox district paid RNSC Consulting $40,000 to provide support to the district’s financial department. Clint Johnston, who was the superintendent for the Jefferson R-7 School District, served as the financial consultant during that school year.
“With the transition in our finance department with very little public school experience and public school accounting (being) its own animal with lots of different rules and regulations, we have identified an experienced consultant to support their work for this year,” Fregeau said when the board hired RNSC Consulting in September 2023.
Fregeau said the decision to bring in a consultant was made while Fox was searching to replace Stewart, whose departure came on the heels of payroll manager Sherry Caldwell’s decision to leave in January 2023 and benefits and payroll specialist Pam Graves’ decision to leave in February 2023.