Minneapolis Schools Get New CFO

After several months of mild tumult as district staff tried to cope without a Chief Financial Officer, the Minneapolis Public Schools are finally getting a replacement in Robert Doty.

Former CFO and financial whizkid Peggy Ingison departed earlier this year for a job with the Minnesota Historical Society. Ingison had been credited with not only successfully managing the district's finances in an era of rapidly declining dollars—hard enough—but leading the effort to restore the district's financial health. As MinnPost's longtime education reporter Beth Hawkins wrote when Ingison resigned:

When Ingison arrived at MPS, the district did not have financial statements. Checks were sometimes cut months late. She would never say this, but often the response to news that funding was drying up was met with grousing about funding drying up and not by any serious discussion about the painful structural changes that would have to be made to keep schools open in a different fiscal climate.

It’s Ingison who explained year after year, loudly and in plain English, exactly how a state funding shift eventually turns into a cut. It was Ingison who schooled board members in the mysteries of the unallotment process.

Superintendent Bernadiea Johnson said she was pleased with the candidate. Doty was chosen after an initial search didn't turn up any candidates both qualified enough to replace Ingison and willing to relocate, according to school board member Rebecca Gagnon.

“Robert is a well-respected senior-level executive who brings extensive finance, administration and public accounting experience,” said Johnson in a statement distributed to reporters. “His proven ability to improve operations, his strong qualifications in general management and business planning and his leadership skills will be crucial to our efforts to create sustainable finances as outlined in our strategic plan.”  

Doty was previously the CFO for Dunwoody College, and helped design and oversee a charter school sponsored by Dunwoody. That experience, he said, taught him much about school funding.

"That was my baby, if you will," he said.

Doty said he would also continue Ingison's efforts to increase financial transparency in the district, calling it a "priority."