D-70 board hires new chief school business officer

Bradford to leave Yorkville district to take position July 1

Libertyville School District 70 Board of Education members unanimously approved hiring Mindy Bradford, a five-year school finance veteran, as the district’s new Chief School Business Officer to begin July 1.

LIBERTYVILLE – Libertyville School District 70 Board of Education members unanimously approved hiring Mindy Bradford, a five-year school finance veteran, as the district’s new chief school business officer beginning July 1.

Bradford, the executive director of finance and operations at Yorkville Community Unit School District 115, will replace two interim directors of finance and operations, Mike Adamczyk and William Harkin. Adamczyk and Harkin are sharing duties leading the business department this school year.

Bradford has worked in Yorkville for five years, beginning in 2017 as the director of business services. She will lead a four-person department in District 70.

District 70 school board members, staff and central office administrators worked together in the recruitment and selection process.

“We are excited to welcome Mindy into the District 70 family,” Superintendent Matt Barbini said in a news release. “Mindy has the experience, training and disposition to make an immediate and lasting positive contribution to District 70.”

District 70 School Board President Wendy Schilling agreed.

“Mrs. Mindy Bradford brings a unique talent set to our district,” Schilling said. “Her previous experience both in the public and private sectors will serve the district well, especially in assisting in the district’s long-range financial planning. Also, her experience in the private sector lends itself to her thinking outside of the box to help identify solutions for challenges facing the district.”

In District 115, Bradford worked to improve the district’s bond rating, led multiple cross-functional teams designing COVID-19 operational protocols, worked with the district and community leadership to create a comprehensive plan to leverage the use of COVID-19 grants funds, delivered surplus budgets, helped create an improved five-year-budget projection process and provided leadership for transportation and food service (including championing the creation of a new breakfast program at the district’s middle school during her first year in the district).

“I have been personally passionate about education since I was a young girl and have a strong understanding of the importance of social-emotional learning and the incredible impact our school environment has on the lives of students, especially after the last 19 months of the pandemic,” Bradford said in her job application, adding that she has a “servant’s heart” as a school leader. ”It brings me tremendous joy to help improve the lives of district students and families on a daily basis.”

Bradford has a master’s in business administration from Northwestern University and a master’s in leadership, education, psychology and foundation from Northern Illinois University. She has a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Dayton.

Before changing paths to education, Bradford had 25 years of experience in public accounting, internal auditing, budgeting, reporting, variance analysis, risk management and facilities management. She worked for Arthur Andersen, Ameritech, Kraft Foods and Beam Suntory.

Bradford and her husband, Barry, a retired teacher from Adlai Stevenson High School, live in Deerfield. They have a daughter, EJ, a sophomore elementary education major at DePaul University, and a son, Zack, a senior at Deerfield High School who hopes to study computer science in college.