FY26 A.I. Regionals: Cracking the Code

Michelle is in her 18^th year at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and serves as the Regional Governance Coordinator in the Office of Regional Governance in the Center for School Finance and District Support. Prior to returning to the Office of Regional Governance in 2019, Michelle held several roles at the Department, including monitoring public school districts, collaboratives, and approved special education schools and investigating complaints filed concerning districts. As the Regional Governance Coordinator, she focuses on issues related to regional school districts, including amendments to regional agreements, fiscal oversight, and specific grants for regionalization and regional school districts.

Chris started in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over 45 years ago in the School Building Assistance Program working on construction related issues as well as regional organizational issues.  Chris worked in the School Finance area during the early years of the educational reform law in 1993 on the new Chapter 70 formula and the revised financial chart of accounts.  From 1999 to 2004 she served as the director of the School Building Assistance Program before becoming Director of Regional Governance.  Chris retired in 2016 but has  continued to work in the Office of Regional Governance  as a consultant, focusing primarily on issues relating to the formation and expansion of regional school districts, the updating of existing regional agreements and issues relating to regional budgeting and finance.

Jay Sullivan is the Associate Commissioner for District & School Finance in the Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. In this capacity, he directs the Offices of School Finance, School Business and Regional Governance. He also oversees a variety of financial programs, including Special Education Circuit Breaker, School accounting, End of Year Financial Reporting and Auditing, Transportation, as well as federal compliance issues relative to maintenance of effort requirements and the calculation of district’s indirect cost rates. Jay has worked for the Department for over 43 years as an auditor, administrator and business manager.