If something in Cy-Fair ISD has a dollar tied to it, Stuart Snow is involved. With more than 25 years of school business finance experience under his belt, he is responsible for the daily financial operations of the district in his role as chief financial officer, in addition to numerous other fiscal and financial affairs duties.

After attending Texas Tech University and the University of Houston, Snow began his career with international CPA firm Deloitte & Touche in Houston. He worked in the audit division and became a governmental accounting expert because of his work with clients such as Harris County, the city of Houston and several school districts, including Cy-Fair ISD.

After 11 years at Deloitte, Snow then went to work as the chief financial officer for Spring ISD, where he worked for 18 years before coming to CFISD in 2007.

In his role as chief financial officer for CFISD, Snow is responsible for developing and monitoring the annual budget, managing payroll and benefits and putting together the district's comprehensive annual financial report. He also handles selling bonds and accounting for not just the daily operations of the district but all of the construction and payment of debt by the district.

Snow has been a member of the board of directors for the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce since 2008 and is serving as chairman of the board this year.

In his role as board chairman, Snow is responsible for developing a vision for the chamber and presiding over board meetings and monthly membership luncheons. He also attends chamber events and ribbon cuttings and meets with business owners to encourage them to join the chamber and become involved in the community.

In addition to his duties at CFISD, Snow serves on the ticket services committee of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He and his wife, Jan, have been active at Cypress Bible Church since the early 1980s and have lived in Cy-Fair for 35 years.

What are some of the challenges of working with a large school district budget?

I think primarily the challenge has been to meet the district's needs with limited revenues and being able to adopt the budget with the revenues we have. There are just a tremendous amount of needs for a district this size, whether it's maintenance of our facilities or programmatic needs. A lot of the needs are mandated by the state of Texas, and in those situations it may result in having to forgo something else because of limited funds. Primarily, the biggest challenge is being able to work within our means and achieve the goals the board has for us.

Where does the district get its sources of revenue?

The school district has separate funds for different things. The general fund is the general operating fund of the district, and the general fund pays for daily operations of the district—it's the benefits and salaries and supplies and materials and fuel we pay for our buses. The major sources of revenue for that fund are tax revenue and state revenue. For the 2014-15 budget, tax and state revenue each make up 47 percent of the budget.

Financially, what are the benefits and challenges of working in a fast-growing district?

One of the benefits is that we are building new schools as opposed to closing schools in a declining enrollment situation. If you ask anybody in a district where they've had to close schools, that's not a pleasant thing to do politically or with the community. A fast-growing district in my mind means the district itself is very successful. If you have a successful district that is highly regarded, people will move into your district. The school district, in my opinion, is the biggest driver of economic development and quality of life of a community. As people move into the district because of the reputation of the school system, with the additional residents come additional businesses and medical facilities that improve the quality of life of the community.

With a fast-growing school district, the challenges are immense. In terms of budgeting, with new students coming in you have to provide for them either through new schools and facilities or teachers and other staff. There is a challenge on the construction and debt side, too. The primary reason for selling bonds is to accommodate student enrollment growth either through new facilities or the renovation of facilities. There's a tremendous amount of pressure to have a bond election and sell the bonds to construct facilities while being able to keep the debt level and tax rate as low as possible.

How do you expect the ongoing school finance lawsuit to affect Cy-Fair ISD?

We don't expect a decision from the district level court for several months. Automatically, I'm sure it will be appealed to the Texas Supreme Court regardless of in whose favor the district court decision is made. I don't see a decision by the Supreme Court for at least a year, so we won't have a final decision for the [2015] Legislature. If the decision is in our favor, I expect the Legislature will move to put additional money into public education in Texas. If the decision is in favor of the defendants, the worst-case scenario is that we won't get any extra money. The complicating factor is in the next legislative session if the state provides extra funding for public education, that may open up the question of whether the court case needs to be re-filed. There are a lot of questions we are facing with the lawsuit.