John Stewart is ready to start working in the county where he grew up and lives.
The 51-year-old Hillsboro resident has been named the next chief financial officer for the Fox C-6 School District.
Fox Board of Education members voted unanimously in a Feb. 4 closed meeting to hire Stewart, who is currently the CFO for the Brentwood School District. He will replace Fox’s current CFO, John Brazeal, who is retiring on March 31.
On Monday, Stewart said he expects to begin his job at Fox during the week of March 23 and no later than March 30.
Stewart has a one-year contract and will be paid $145,000 from July 1 to June 30, 2021. He will be paid a pro-rated salary, based on his $145,000 salary, from the end of March when he starts this school year, said JP Prezzavento, Fox’s communication and instructional technology coordinator.
Stewart was being paid a $135,858 annual salary at Brentwood, according to that school district.
He said he’s eager to start his new job.
“Fox has always been the largest district (in Jefferson County) and has kind of been the leader and what to aspire to (as a district).” said Stewart. “I know they are doing great things with educational attainment with their students. It seemed like a good opportunity to come back to Jefferson County.”
Fox Superintendent Nisha Patel said Stewart was a good hire.
“John’s work has shown he is someone who understands how important it is for a school district to be financially strong and be good stewards of taxpayer money,” she said. “Mr. Brazeal in the past five-plus years has done so much for this district. He has kept it financially stable despite all the challenges we face with revenue. My goal for John (Stewart) is to continue to do the same.”
Work history
Stewart worked for 10 years in corporate accounting before his first job with a school district.
He was the business manager for the Hillsboro R-3 School District from March 2003 to May 2005. He also served on the district school board.
After 2005, he was the senior marketing representative at PFM Asset Management LLC from May 2005 to November 2006.
Stewart was a manager at Daniel Jones and Associates, a CPA firm in Arnold, from January to August 2007 before taking a job as CFO for the Bayless School District in August 2007. He left Bayless in June 2011 for Brentwood, and beginning in January 2019, he also took a job as an adjunct instructor at Missouri Baptist University.
Stewart said one of his top priorities at Fox will be to be open and transparent about district finances, while being a good steward of taxpayer money.
“One of the things I have learned in my years of public service in the school districts is I work with the budget and handle the budget, but it is not my money or the district’s money; it is the taxpayers’ money,” Stewart said.
Prop P
Fox placed a $40 million bond on the April 7 ballot.
The measure, which is called Proposition P and stands for “Promise, Purpose and Progress for our students,” will ask voters to allow the district to sell $40 million in bonds to build a new instructional wing at Fox High School, build additions at Meramec Heights and Antonia elementary schools, improve safety and security at all school buildings, improve pavement at all school buildings, upgrade playgrounds at all elementary schools and complete other capital improvement projects throughout the district.
Patel said if Prop P is passed, Stewart will play a big role in how Fox uses the money.
“John will have a crucial role with this,” Patel said. “He will oversee all the projects that will come as a result of Prop P.”
Stewart said he has experience handling bond issue money and overseeing projects for school districts.
He said in 2004, the Hillsboro School District had a bond issue and an operating tax levy increase approved by voters, and while he was at Bayless, voters approved an April 2018 bond issue to fund renovation projects at the district’s high school and middle school campus.
Stewart said at Brentwood, voters approved a $16 million bond issue in April 2018 for renovation projects at the district’s high school-middle school complex, which included linking the two schools together better. He also said Brentwood is currently asking voters to approve a $29 million bond issue to demolish one of the district’s current elementary schools, to build another and to renovate Brentwood’s other elementary school.
“I have been part of tax increase and no-tax increase bond issues, and the construction projects that come out of them,” said Stewart.
He and his wife, Kay Stewart, have three adult children – Ian, 26; Christian, 24; and Justus, 20.