IN FOCUS
Jennifer Stahlheber When numbers let her down, she turns to relationships By Nicole Krueger
Photography by Hope Harris
Jennifer Stahlheber starts every new job with a getting-to-know-you session: She sits down with the organization’s data and runs a bunch of historical trends, looking for patterns. “Typically, when you do that, you get a very reliable picture of the district,” says Stahlheber, who joined San Juan Unified School District as its chief financial officer in July. But with a global pandemic skewing the data for the past two years, she says “It’s been all over the place. It’s been very challenging to get to know the district in a difficult time.” Because schools rely so heavily on historical data to shape their budgets for the coming year, the havoc COVID-19 has wrought on data trends has been particularly rough for school business leaders – many of whom, like Stahlheber, have lost faith in their numbers. “I’ve talked to other CBOs, and we’re all facing the same thing. We don’t have a lot of faith in our numbers like we used to,” she says. “What is our normal? We have multiple years that have not been normal. How much of that shift is going to stay?” But as her grandpa used to say, you can’t complain unless you’re willing to roll up your
sleeves and make a difference. And that’s exactly what Stahlheber has done. Without reliable data to work with, she’s focusing instead on forging stronger relationships, growing people and tackling each challenge as it comes. “I’ve always made it my motto to find my way to saying yes,” she says. “Sometimes I have to be creative, but it has served me well. When I do say no, people get it because they know that Jennifer usually says yes.” Stahlheber’s can-do attitude is one of the reasons she spent four years on CASBO’s Legislative Committee, advocating for schools at the state and local levels, despite having little interest in politics. “Schools don’t just educate anymore,” she says. “They also provide mental health services and feed kids multiple meals a day. We do all these other things, and we do them because they’re good for kids and help them achieve at higher levels. A financial analyst at heart, Stahlheber got her first job out of college at a municipal financial firm that administered bonds for school districts and other public entities. After taking some time off to have her first child, she set her sights on education as a
more family-friendly career path. She got her feet wet at Shasta Union High School District and has worked her way up through several smaller districts, as well as the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools and Calbright College, before landing at San Juan Unified, a large district with declining enrollment. Starting a new job while also grappling with a mass teacher exodus, confusing quarantine protocols and a spike in parent frustration has been tough. It was also a difficult year personally for Stahlheber, whose youngest son was diagnosed with epilepsy within months of her oldest son leaving for college at UC Santa Barbara and her husband going into cardiac arrest while flying to a family reunion. Although all are doing well, she’s looking forward to a better 2022. Despite the recent struggles, Stahlheber hasn’t lost her passion for working with numbers to create better outcomes for students. “Schools are important, and I wish more people knew that,” she says. “People leave schools because it’s hard work and they don’t feel appreciated. How can we get that out there and plant that passion in other people? We all want to do good things, to make a difference.” z z z
California School Business casbo.org
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