School District Business Leadership (Professional Certification), CAS

Contact:

Joseph Shedd, 150 Huntington Hall, 315 443-2685, jbshedd@syr.edu

The School District Business Leadership C.A.S. program (SDBL) provides a comprehensive program in school business management provided jointly by the School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Leadership and the Maxwell School of Public Affairs Department of Public Administration. The program leads to New York State certification as a School District Business Leader.

School district business leaders are typically the chief financial officers of school districts and manage a broad range of non-instructional functions, such as budgeting, accounting, facilities management, information technology, procurement, human resources (personnel) management, labor negotiations, food service and transportation.

Besides meeting the requirements for SDBL certification in New York State, the program provides coursework and field experiences that prepare candidates to fulfill all professional functions of school business management specified by the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO). Besides an introductory course in Issues and Practices in School District Leadership, the program includes coursework in six areas of study:

Financial management and management of ancillary services.
Education leadership and management.
Education law.
Human resource management.
Microeconomics.
Program evaluation.

Certificate Requirements

A required practicum experience (a 600-hour clinical internship, typically spread over spring, summer and early fall semesters) completes the course structure of the program.

To receive certification as a school district business leader a student must have 60 graduate credits and a Master’s degree. The SDBL program itself consists of courses (including the internship) accounting for 37 of these graduate credits. The number of courses that a student is required to take varies depending on her/his previous graduate experience. Candidates who have either completed or are concurrently pursuing a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership or a Master’s of Public Administration are likely to have already completed some courses required under the SDBL program. Each student will take at least thirteen (13) graduate credits toward the SDBL that are not included in some other program. Certification and (under most circumstances) program completion also require that the candidate pass a New York State administered examination in School District Business Leadership.

The following courses are required by the program. (We have marked below those that are either required or elective courses in our CAS program in educational leadership for school district and school building leaders (CAS) or our MPA program in public administration (MPA), which candidates may already have taken or may be taking simultaneously to secure those degrees.):

EDA 752 - Leadership for Organizational and Institutional Development 3 credit(s) (CAS)
EDA 762 - Leadership for Inclusive Schooling 3 credit(s) (CAS)
EDA 735 - Human Resource Management in Public Education 3 credit(s)
EDA 782 - Issues and Practices in District Leadership 3 credit(s) (CAS)
EDA 792 - Legal Basis of Education 3 credit(s) (CAS)
IDE 641 - Techniques in Educational Evaluation 3 credit(s)
PAI 709 - Research Consultancy in Public Diplomacy 3 credit(s) (MPA)
PAI 722 - Quantitative Analysis 3 credit(s) (MPA)
PAI 723 - Economics for Public Decisions 3 credit(s) (MPA)
PAI 731 - Financial Management in State and Local Governments 3 credit(s) (MPA)
PAI 734 - Public Budgeting 3 credit(s)
PAI 735 - State and Local Government Finance 3 credit(s) (MPA)
EDA 899 - Internship in Educational Administration and Supervision 3-4 credit(s) (This internship seminar is completed at the end of the program)