Retiring Shaker Schools treasurer set district’s sound financial course

After nearly 24 years serving as Shaker Heights School District treasurer, Bryan Christman is shown here attending his final Board of Education meeting July 18. School board member Heather Weingart, left, presented Christman with a two-year MasterClass unlimited subscription. Tom Jewell/Special to cleveland.com

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Closing out the books as the state’s longest-serving active school district treasurer, Bryan Christman officially called it a career at the end of July, retiring after nearly 24 years in Shaker Heights.

At his last official meeting July 18, school board members led off with a tribute to Christman’s adept fiscal management over the years, which allowed them to pursue an ambitious district-wide construction program while adding Pre-K instruction, air conditioning, ADA improvements and security upgrades, as well as the preservation and restoration of historic buildings.

He also worked at reducing the district levy cycle from roughly every three or four years to the last operating levy appearing on the ballot in 2014. And he shepherded a $30 million “warm, safe and dry” bond issue in 2017, primarily for building upkeep.

District officials have spent the better part of two years working on a 9.95-mill ballot issue going before voters in November.

In financial parlance, school board member Jeffrey Isaacs referred to Christman’s retirement as an “‘unfavorable variance,’ with challenges that we will continue to monitor, although we are certainly well poised to take them on.”

Earlier this year, Christman picked up a plaque from the Ohio Association of School Business Officials honoring his service.

“You have served your community and your profession with competence, grace and generosity,” Isaacs said. “You have gained the trust of discerning community members who are very engaged in the details of our work.

“However, your free time has been woefully in arrears,” he added.

Board member Heather Weingart did the math and came up with over 400 nights that he was not home with his family, taking a moment to thank Christman’s wife, JoAnn -- also a CPA -- whom he pointed out in the audience.

Counting regular Finance & Audit Committee meetings, he estimated another 100 nights, also asking the district’s finance team to take a bow.

“Will I miss all of the meetings at night? I’ll have to get used to that, I guess,” Christman told the board.

Realizing that she may have taken him for granted all this time, board member Lora Cover thanked Christman for being “incredibly patient -- and with no judgment” in fielding any and all questions.

Citing Christman’s “complete dedication, attention to detail and setting the tone” for the district, school board member Alison Bibb-Carlson said: “It didn’t seem like you were ever ‘winging it.’ And if you were, you hid it really well.”

To this, Christman smiled and said, “fake it ‘til you make it.”

After the three-hour-plus meeting, he added that he was “quite happy to hear the school board’s comments, but I don’t necessarily believe all that stuff.”

That included the “rock star” references reportedly coming from other school officials around the state at conferences, as Weingart noted.

“Your professionalism is second to none, and I’ve always been impressed with how much you cared about the district,” school board president Emmitt R. Jolly said to the father of three Shaker grads.

“You have put your stamp on this district,” Jolly added. “And I’m really proud of having had the opportunity to be able to call you my friend.”

‘Rock star’ status

Count Superintendent David Glasner among Christman’s fans as well.

“I’ve always felt incredibly fortunate, honored and privileged having started my career as a superintendent with you as the treasurer,” Glasner said.

“And that’s not just about being the longest (continuously) serving treasurer in the State of Ohio. It’s about the expertise, skill and qualifications you brought to the office.”

Prior to joining the Shaker Schools in 1999, Christman served three years as treasurer for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and six years prior to that as their controller.

“I always joked that the dilemmas and money issues were the same when I moved over from Cleveland -- there were just a few less ‘zeros’ here in Shaker,” Christman said.

Originally from Cambridge in Guernsey County, Christman graduated from the University of Miami, embarking on an initial 12 years in the public accounting field. He met JoAnn -- a Brush High School graduate -- while the two worked at the same firm in Columbus. They eventually moved to Cleveland.

“My wife will be working another year, so I plan to consult a little bit, along with anything I can do to help make the transition easier” for interim Shaker Schools Treasurer Shelley McDermott, whom Christman hopes will succeed him permanently.

There could also be another booking for the European River Cruise the Christmans had lined up for their 30th wedding anniversary, before “COVID kind of canceled everybody’s plans,” Bryan Christman noted.

In addition to the traditional Shaker-style chair that the district awards retirees, he also received a two-year MasterClass unlimited subscription. He plans to start out by learning about the stars and planets with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

“We used to go to the observatory down at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and I always enjoyed that,” Christman said.

On the job, he also liked the superintendent’s cabinet getting out on a regular basis to the different schools in the district.

“It was always good to see the kids and the classrooms to keep us focused on what’s important,” Christman said.

One of the low points in his career came just over five years ago, on July 10, 2018, when an extensive fire damaged Fernway Elementary School.

“I remember watching it burning that day,” Christman recalled.

The district regrouped and put together a plan to rebuild the neighborhood school with a $14.6 million insurance reimbursement and another $3 million in district funds.

Going forward

Having “been around the school business” for 30 years, Christman said he’s seen other ups and downs.

At this point, he expressed guarded optimism about Ohio’s Fair School Funding Plan, now at the midway mark in its third year of six.

“‘Year Three′ seems to have taken hold, but the story is not over yet,” Christman said. “At the drop of a hat, it can all change” in Ohio.

The fourth year of “fair school funding” also appears to be covered in the state’s recently signed two-year budget.

“We’re definitely heading in the right direction, although there continues to be frustration and dissatisfaction with how the (EdChoice) voucher program has evolved for private schools,” Christman said in a July 21 phone interview.

He added that one funding plan does not work for all types of school districts in Ohio.

“And if we’re going to fund private and charter schools with public money, then they have to have the same educational standards set for the public schools,” Christman added. “It has to be a level playing field.”

He also believes in a more balanced approach to funding schools in Ohio.

“There needs to be some kind of balance in terms of sales, income and property tax,” Christman said. “Increasing the sales tax is considered regressive, while they continue to cut the state income tax.”

This in turn cuts the ability to do any realignment on income tax for school funding.

“We need a better system than to continue hanging our hat on property taxes,” Christman said. “And a balance of the three makes the most sense.”

On the local side of the ledger, Christman said tax increment financing (“TIFs”) can also have their place.

Although school districts receive much less revenue through “payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs),” with developers keeping the lion’s share to put back in their projects, at least it means the schools are getting something instead of nothing, he said.

“If a particular project would not go through but for the TIF, then we haven’t lost anything,” Christman said.

“The Qua site (in the Van Aken District, soon to be the Arcadia mixed-use development) has been vacant for over 10 years (18 in all, since 2005).

“By having the TIF, we’re encouraging that development,” Christman said. “It’s always worked well with the city.”