Attleboro Man Wins Business Award

Attleboro resident Kurtis W. Johnson was recently recognized by the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials as the 2012 recipient of the John Conway Distinguished Service Award.

Johnson is the director of business operations for the Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District . He received the award, which is named in remembrance of MASBO's first executive director, for his accomplishments with enhancing Valley Tech's educational mission.

He 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, Johnson 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 committed to mentoring regional school districts at the statewide level.

"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," said John A. Crafton, MASBO's executive director.

Under Johnson's direct supervision, Valley Tech's school cafeteria was recently awarded the Healthier US School Challenge Silver Award by the USDA. Earning this award made Valley Tech one of only 10 high schools in the nation 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 more than 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," Superintendent/Director Michael F. Fitzpatrick said. "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."