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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — When Huntsville’s new superintendent began his job last week, he found that one of his most daunting and important tasks had been completed for him.

Dr. Casey Wardynski said state education officials had already written a 2012 budget for Huntsville City Schools. The proposed $210 million budget is expected to be brought before the school board next month for approval.

Wardynski alluded to some discord with state officials Monday night during a town hall meeting at Grissom High School, where he said the state officials took the lead during a meeting to discuss the budget.

“I asked them, ‘Am I running this district or are you?’ ” Wardynski said. “And they had to think about it.”

Wardynski incited applause from the crowd when he said that he told the officials, “I am the superintendent.”

Dr. Craig Pouncey, deputy state superintendent for finance, said Tuesday his staff did preliminary budget work at the behest of the Huntsville school board. His staff is now working with Wardynski to ensure the budget is ready on time.

“We are working at his direction to accomplish those critical and timely tasks that, throughout our experiences, we know have to be completed in time for the board to review and approve a budget submittable to the state by Sept. 15,” said Pouncey.

The school board asked for help because of the precarious financial situation of the Huntsville system. The system has experienced drastic cuts in the wake of a $19.5 million operating shortfall at the end of the fiscal year last year.

“We’re dealing with a district that has a deficit balance at this time,” Pouncey said. “Our focus is one of partnering with the board, being that they’re in the process of dealing with the transition of a new superintendent and the lack of a chief financial officer.”

Herbert Wheeler, the school system’s former CFO, resigned on June 2, the same day the board named Wardynski as the system’s new superintendent. Though Wheeler remains the system’s executive business director, his duties to write the system’s budgets went with the CFO title. His salary remained the same at about $114,000.

Wardynski’s July 5 start date gave him less than six weeks to acclimate himself to his new job and write the system’s budget without a CFO. Rob Terry, the system’s auditor, has been named interim CFO until Wardynski and the board hire someone permanent.

Board member David Blair, who sits on the board’s finance committee, said that having state officials build the budget gave Wardynski more breathing room in his first few weeks as system leader.

“It took the pressure off of him having to get the CFO in place in time to get the budget ready,” Blair said. “He would have had to get the CFO in there immediately, but I believe he wants to restructure that role.”

Wardynski told The Times that he has someone in mind for the position but he didn’t identify the person. He said he worked with the person during his own stint as CFO of the Aurora, Colo., school system.

Wardynski this week could not be reached for comment for this story.

Wheeler’s resignation came at a bad time, Pouncey said, but further compounding the loss was the fact that Wheeler’s main assistant suffered a stroke several months ago and has not been able to return to work.

“A budget the size of Huntsville’s takes a great deal of coordination in an attempt to maximize all available resources for the benefit of the kids,” Pouncey said.

Pouncey said his staff’s work on the new budget began immediately after the Legislature passed the state’s Education Trust Fund budget in mid-June.

Huntsville City Schools’ proposed 2012 budget is expected to be about $210 million, he said. That is about 6 percent lower than the total budget with which the system began fiscal 2011.

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