Michael Dobson: The Farewell Interview

Above the Northwest Academy Dance Studio Building, huddled away above the steep old staircase next to the tap room, there is the office of a man who is virtually unknown to the student body, yet he unarguably plays one of the biggest and most important roles in the entire school. Financial Officer Michael Dobson works on making the school go round: purchasing essential materials, making sure the teachers get paid and ensuring there is a roof over every classroom. But, almost no student would even knows his hard work. This is because Dobson is one of the least known administrators and now he is retiring. In order the pull back the curtain, the Pigeon Press interviewed Dobson about what he has done for the school for over a decade.

How long have worked at Northwest Academy?

Eleven years.

Have you always been the financial officer for the Northwest Academy, or have worked here in other capacities?

No, I have always done this. Back when the school brought me on and hired me, I started as the finance person.

What are some of your duties?

I handle all aspects of the finances for the school. So, I deal with vendors, manage payroll, all monetary transactions, development, fundraising, purchases-getting all the supplies, and all that. I also do a fair amount of human resources work; benefits for teachers and other employees, that sort of office work, as well as facilities management, coordinate with the people we rent buildings from, all purchases are under my purview… everything that involves money, which is pretty much everything except the actually teaching (laughs).

What is the busiest time of year for you?

You know, it’s really evolved over the years to where it’s busy here all year round. Though, I would have to say summer time is when I am the busiest. That is usually the time when I have a lot of projects that need to get done, renovations, work to be completed, things like that. I think I would say we are always pretty busy, but summer is definitely when we are all working our hardest to accomplish the most tasks the quickest and get things ready for the following year.

You handle financial aid paperwork, correct? What’s that like?

I do handle that. It is my job to do the assembly of the parent’s financial information, dealing with all that. You know, looking at their tax returns. I manage assessing, understanding, working on everyone’s financial needs. I work on doing all the paperwork for that, digesting that, and preparing all that information for the financial aid committee to look over and decide on.

You also handle any finance requests from teachers, right?

I process all the purchase orders for the school, including those generated by teachers. POs must be approved in advance by either Mary (Folberg), Scott (Kerman) or myself. These need to be matched to invoices and then processed for payment. It’s a matter of keeping track of all the flow of goods and services into the organization and the outflow of money for those items and tying that to the school budget.

What is the strangest/weirdest/most interesting/entertaining request from a teacher you have ever gotten?

(Laughs) You know, beef hearts, pig hearts, stuff like that is always really weird to order. All that science materials is always interesting. But, I handle all transactions and am in-charge of getting everything for the school, so paper, paper clips, all the equipment, the supplies, stuff like that. Most all of it very normal office stuff. Most of what I do is very… routine. Nearly all of what I buy is pretty standard. There is no purchase in my mind that stands out as the one most outrageous and memorable. I just handle so many purchases, all pretty regular.

I understand this will be your last year at Northwest Academy. Will you be retiring from the work force or will you be moving onto another place of employment? What are some of your other plans for the future?

Yes, this is my last year. I will be retiring from the work force. I’m just retiring. I would like to concentrate more on my family, spend more time with them. I also have a lot of things going on I’m going to spend more time doing. I belong to other organizations I want to do more with, I am going to do some volunteering, and other things that are really important to me. I would like to do more that kind of stuff.

What do you think is the biggest improvement the school could make?

That’s not an easy question to answer, at all. Wow, just a really long answer. Well, the school was founded by Mary, and it’s grown so much. As we’ve gotten bigger, we’ve needed to expand more and more, sort of building a structure to accommodate this new size. I feel the school is going through a major transition right now. The ever-increasing size, transition of leadership, the general structure, getting all that settled and done right is I think the biggest challenge for the school to date. I think getting working through this period is the biggest improvement the school could make.

What was one of your favorite moments working at Northwest Academy?

There have been a lot of things I have really enjoyed. Really, making things happen, organizing things, watching stuff get accomplished and helping that, getting needs done and seeing that success is really what I loved most. Earlier in the creation of the school, just seeing the dance and science rooms come to fruition. All those things.

What do you think is the biggest thing you can take away from Northwest Academy?

Years of learning, really. All the connections I have made over the time I have been here. You know, I represent Northwest Academy to constituency that most people don’t see or even know about. The vendors, the suppliers, all the contractors and people we have brought in and I have gotten to know. So much of what actually makes the school work and have sheer materials go unseen to the vast majority of people here. I think that is what I will remember the most. Not to mention, just seeing how drastically the school has grown and changed.