Valley Tech's Director of Business Wins Award

Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District’s Director of Business Operations Kurtis W. Johnson, was recently recognized by the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials (MASBO) as the 2012 recipient of the John Conway Distinguished Service Award.

This award, named in remembrance of MASBO’s first Executive Director, was given to Johnson in recognition for his accomplishments enhancing Valley Tech’s educational mission.

Johnson has fostered a vast array of cost-saving and budget balancing measures that have allowed the district to weather the turbulent economy. An advocate of zero-based budgeting, he has been a catalyst for spending freezes when necessary and a proponent of plans for applying E&D reserves when appropriate and allowable. He takes pride in the energy savings generated by the District’s Green School initiative and monitors grant management efforts which have enabled external resource acquisitions to exceed 8 percent of the operating budget in recent years.

Johnson played a pivotal role in negotiating a new three-year teacher’s contract, which provides meaningful system-wide savings. He is also very committed to mentoring regional school districts at the statewide level.

MASBO’s Executive Director John A. Crafton stated, “Kurtis certainly represents one of the finest examples of an educational leader that I have had the fortune to meet and I am honored to have him as a colleague.”

Under Johnson’s direct supervision Valley Tech’s school cafeteria was recently awarded theHealthierUS School Challenge Silver Award by the USDA. Earning this award made Valley Tech one in only 10 high schools nationwide to earn the distinction, drawing the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Johnson has more than 20 years of experience and has served the Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District for over 10 years in which time the school’s population has grown 29 percent.

“To say Kurtis is an asset to the District would be a tremendous understatement,” stated Dr. Michael F. Fitzpatrick, superintendent-director. “His leadership and knowledge of school business management has lead to numerous positive changes that have enabled us to cultivate cost-saving and budget-balancing measures to create a lean and cost-effective operation.”

Johnson holds a master's degree in education administration from Westfield State University and a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Belhaven University. Originally from Monroe, LA., Johnson currently resides in Attleboro.

Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School serves the towns of Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Grafton, Hopedale, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Northbridge, Sutton, Upton