School Board hires Richmond Public Schools CFO, approves Patrick Henry principal

After going more than two years without a full-time chief financial officer, Richmond Public Schools has finally hired a permanent replacement. The School Board voted last night to hire Paul Andrew Hawkins, who most recently served in a similar capacity for Fauquier County Public Schools.

June 21, 2010; 8:16 PM • by Chris Dovi

After going more than two years without a full-time chief financial officer, Richmond Public Schools has finally hired a permanent replacement.

The School Board voted last night to hire Paul Andrew Hawkins, who most recently served in a similar capacity for Fauquier County Public Schools.

In that capacity, Hawkins currently oversees preparation of Fauquier’s $140 million budget. He’d previously served in similar capacities in Fairfax, Orange, and Mecklenburg counties, as well as in finance posts with various state agencies.

Hawkins steps into a post that has largely been filled by Jim Damm, an outside contractor from Texas who was brought in on an interim basis to replace disgraced former chief operating officer Thomas Sheeran.

Sheeran was forced to resign in November 2007 after a succession of damning city audits and gaffes, including questions regarding his involvement in approving and overseeing an expensive and poorly planned effort to move the district’s computer server room.

Members of the School Board questioned the move, which was determined to have cost in excess of $1 million, because the board had never voted to approve the funding.

After resigning, Sheeran threatened to sue the district, seeking a payoff settlement to compensate him for loss of his job. In 2008, Sheeran took an administrative finance post with Montgomery College in Maryland.

The School Board also approved appointment of Thomas Beatty (who was most recently principal of Richmond Community High School) as executive director of secondary education, a post filled on an interim basis for the last two years by Dionne Ward.

After meeting in closed session for more than three hours earlier in the afternoon, the board also approved Patrick Henry’s new principal, Pamela Boyd. Boyd’s posting had been threatened until the vote by the board, which had indicated that her approval would come only after Patrick Henry school officials signed a lease on their building.

June 21, 2010 8:16 PM 1