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Martinez Joins District Administrative Team
Martinez
Arturo Martinez is the new Chief Business Officer at Riverbank Unified School District. VIRGINIA STILL/THE NEWS

Riverbank Unified School District has a new Chief Business Officer (CBO), Arturo Martinez. He has been with the district for the past few months and is excited to bring his expertise to Riverbank.

“It has been a great transition for me,” said Martinez. “It has been actually an exciting first four months; a lot of work but also a lot of good experience in learning how the district functions. Everybody has been very welcoming.”

Martinez has had about 15 years in accounting and finance. His last position was with University of California Merced as the General Accounting Director for a little over six years.

Growing up in Gustine, Martinez noted he did not know much about Riverbank.

He said, “Riverbank reminds me a lot of the dynamic that I grew up in. It is probably four times bigger. With the few short months that I have been here I am beginning to see that it is a close-knit community almost like a family.”

The Chief Business Officer is responsible for the district’s financial health by preparing the yearly budgets, any revisions of the budget, and accounting. Any funds received by the state or any other revenue source, it is the CBO’s responsibility to meet the requirements and report where they are placed.

“We are that official that has to certify that all the money is being spent as it should be,” stated Martinez. “We prepare the budgets for the different sites; our elementary schools, our middle school, our high school, our continuation school and our charter school. So, we play that critical role of managing the dollars and making sure that we are in compliance with whatever items that we need to be with.”

Although his previous position was in higher education, Martinez explained that the dynamic and the way the revenue flows within the K through 12 district is entirely different.

The fiscal year for the school district starts on July 1 and ends on June 30 which Martinez noted can overlap as is his current situation. They are still closing out last year’s fiscal year and the new year has already started. The first day of school is Thursday, Aug. 4.

“One of the goals that I have in this new fiscal year that is going to start is to create a stronger link between the sites that we manage to the district office,” added Martinez. “I work on creating the budgets for every single site but on the other side there is a principal and the school administrators, the assistant principal, they are the ones managing the money from that site. So just having that communication, that channel open with each other to make sure that we are both on the same page on the money that we have and how it is going to be spent and how it is going to be used to contribute to the education that we are providing.”

With school starting in August, Martinez is looking forward to a full school year at RUSD as he came in towards the end of the 2021-22 school year.

“I look forward to experiencing the full cycle and even continue to learn my role specifically and how it impacts how we work together as the year goes on,” remarked Martinez. “I am sure there is a lot more correlation between my business position as the school year progresses to make those connections and again find ways to, in the end, support everybody, we need to so that the important piece, the education to students continues to thrive.”