Fourth in a series
Re “Years Later, Classes Pay Off for New Assistant Super”
“My job at the Riverside County Office of Education,” Mike Reynolds said, “was to teach the school districts how to use the financial and budgeting system. There was a centralized computer, and every district would sign on.”
Not quite by design, he gained experience that he would value in the next century in Culver City.
“My job was to visit the districts and show them how to use the system,” the new Assistant Superintendent for Business Services for the School District said. “Since some districts had lost people, instead of just teaching them the system, I taught them and then did the budgets myself for several districts.
On the Move
“Three years later, in 1988, he business manager retired from the Menifee School District. I was invited to apply, and I got the job.”
Mr. Reynolds, hired six weeks ago in Culver City, spent five years at Menifee. “It is a real small district,” he said, “and I had a lot of free time, and the same energy and curiosity that I talked about before.”
This was the spark that ignited his next career turn – his extra time away from the office allowing him to explore consulting for various Riverside County educational groups.
A New Plan
While Mr. Reynolds was the Chief Business Officer at Menifee, his wife Sandy was the Chief Business Officer for Hemet Unified.
They sat down one evening and began envisioning a future together, professionally, while.
“There are so many districts in the state, we realized that they often are calling us for advice. Why not form our own company? Why not work for all of these districts, try to help everybody?
“We did it. We started Reynolds Consulting Group, Inc., Jan. 1, 1994. My wife still is running it today.
“I have done some interim assignments. The Cucamonga district would say, ‘Our CBO just quit. Can you come out and fill in for awhile?’ Sandy would do that. But she decided she was tired of all the driving. She called the district and said, ‘I am tired of the driving. I am not coming in Monday. I am sending my husband out.’
“So I started doing it, and I ended up being there a year. I also did interim work at Murrieta Valley Unified and Lake Elsinore Unified.”
The Reynoldses were living in Menifee in those years. Later they moved to Temecula, which, as readers of this series know, where the couple still are today.
“Now we are going to move to Culver City,” Mr. Reynolds said with a glow.
(To be continued)
