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After faithfully serving North Sanpete School District for over 33 years, Business Administrator Darin Johansen plans to retire this coming January. Johansen’s departure leaves the district with large shoes to fill.
As Business Administrator, Johansen is responsible for over- seeing the management of all fi- nancial business within the school district. This includes everything from balancing accounts and budgets, to overseeing employee payroll, to making projections for future expense reports. Johansen is then in charge of compiling this information and presenting a monthly financial report to the school board.
“He is really responsible, as Business Administrator in a school district, for all fiscal management,” said NSSD Superintendent Nan Ault. “He [also] has a great responsibility to make sure that things are done in compliance with the law… Everything that goes through here has several eyes on it, and he is the one that actually finalizes things.”
Despite the huge commitment of time and dedication his job requires, Johansen says that his career has had a positive impact on his personal life.
“I met my wife, Lori, pretty much through the school district as she was hired as a teacher mid-year, fresh off her mission, just a few months after I started in the district,” Johansen said.
Working for the school district has also allowed Johansen to be more involved in his own children’s education.
“We have five children, three boys and two girls, all of whom have graduated from North Sanpete High School,” Johansen said. “Yes, there have been some long hours involved which I’m sure has cut into family time but my job also has given me some chances to be uniquely involved with my kids in their classes.”
Those who work with Johansen know how dedicated he is to NSSD and how willing he is to put in long hours to make sure things are done correctly.
“He is also, as a person, very commit- ted to taking care of people,” Ault said. “I think if you talk to anyone, he is probably the reason why teachers have had pay raises, or the kind of benefits they have, because he is very concerned about that.”
While Johansen works with the district financial team to manage and record all of this information, it ultimately falls on him to oversee the financial security of the NSSD.
“He is the financial supervisor, so he is over everything to do with finance from A to Z,” said district Financial Assistant Tam- my Jorgensen. “All of your budgets, all of your programs, all of your bank accounts. Everything financial, Darin is over.”
In his years at NSSD, Johansen has been tasked with overseeing several major projects.
“During my time we have built re- placements for three elementary schools,” Johansen said, “have made some pretty significant additions/improvements on our other schools, built a new district office, a new bus garage, not to mention other building projects like tennis courts, a softball complex, etc. Most of those projects have involved bond elections, issuing bonds, working with architects and contractors, along with other dedicated administrators who supervised the construction.”
This might seem like a daunting task to some, especially with the ever-changing nature of the public education system, but decades of experience have taught Johansen how to adapt. In his time as Business Administrator, Johansen has worked with six different superintendents and dozens of school board members, each with their own ideas for how to best run the district.
“Each of them has their own particular vision, but it just keeps moving for- ward,” Johansen said.
Despite any difficulties, Johansen has enjoyed working with so many different people and says that is one of the things that he enjoys most about his job.
“You work with a lot of good people when you’re in public education,” Johan- sen said.
Jorgensen is part of Johansen’s financial team and has worked with him for almost 32 of his 33 years at the district. In that time she has been able to get to know a side of him that most people never see.
“Darin’s got a humorous side to him that not many people know,” Jorgensen said. “He’s quite witty, he’s a hard worker, he’s very thorough. I call him eagle eye because he can find things that just amaze me.”
The district will certainly feel the impact of losing someone who has served it for so long.
“He is very dedicated to the North Sanpete School District,” Jorgensen said. “He has been very successful in leading us in financial stability for all of my career.”
Jorgensen has been hired, and was approved by the school board last week on Nov. 16, to succeed Johansen as the district Business Administrator. She will spend the next couple of months preparing to step into the new responsibilities. Ault is confident that the transition will happen smoothly and be a great opportunity for new changes in the district.
“As far as the care and concern that we have for our financial resources,” Ault said, “that will not change.”
