A native of Congo, Jean Sina became the new chief financial officer for Alexandria City Public Schools on Oct. 1. He holds bachelor’s degrees in education and business from the University of Zaire, a bachelor’s degree in business from Dauphine University in Paris and a master’s degree in professional accounting from Georgia State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Sorbonne University in Paris. Sina was a teacher in Africa and a businessman in France before taking a position as executive director of budgeting and reporting services in Georgia for Fulton County School System in 1996.

How are high schools in Congo different from high schools in America?
The biggest difference is that all K-12 education is funded by the federal government. So we don’t have local boards, nor do we have state mandates like we have here. That doesn’t mean it’s better or worse. It’s just different. In Congo, it’s basically a combination of the Belgian and the French systems of education, which is very different from the system of education in the United States where education is a local mandate. Because education is a federal mandate in Congo, we don’t have local board members. From where I sit, that’s a bad idea because you want the local citizens to be involved in the life of the city. That’s why we call them "citizens" from the Greeks.

Why did you come to Alexandria?
I was looking for somewhere to spend the last few years of my career so that I could make the greatest impact to people’s lives. When you work for a very large school system, your influence is diluted because there are so many people to reach. In a smaller school system I can work closely with the top leadership and bring forward some of the best ideas I’ve seen all over the world.

How are the challenges faced by Alexandria different than Fulton County?
Many of the challenges are the same, but the scale is different. In a very large school system like Fulton County or Fairfax County, some of the best ideas might not get pushed to the top leadership because they go from one person to the next person. So a great idea might get lost in the process. But here, in a school district such as ACPS, I can take the best practices and make them applicable here so they can have the largest impact to our student life.

What’s the current economic forecast for the school system?
In a school division such as ours, where we count on the city appropriation to fund 87 percent of our budget, a decrease in the city’s appropriation is a big concern. Even a one-percent decrease in the city appropriation can have a significant impact on school appropriations. So the economic outlook is not good. The two things we cannot control are the recession and the population growth. What we can control is how we align our limited revenue with our student needs so that we can make the best decisions for the children. The economic situation and the population growth is such that this budget cycle will be one of the worst for our school division and for many school divisions in Virginia.

What kind of cutbacks are likely to happen this year? Do you think the school system will be forced into layoffs?
It’s very early in the budget process to talk about cuts or layoffs. Our School Board and our leadership staff has been committed — as much as possible — to have the least impact on our staff and of course our students. At this point, everything is on the table in terms of options. By the way, we are asking anybody who has any ideas to go to our Web site and e-mail us their ideas because I think the budget needs to be as open as possible. It’s a public process, and we want the public to be involved. At this point, we don’t have any recommendations yet.

What is the relationship between money and education?
I don’t think money can solve every single problem we have. However, I do strongly believe that we need to fund public education in such a way that we close the achievement gap. You need more than money. What you need is committed staff members and the best teachers. We also need to start thinking out of the box because we cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and then expect a different outcome. If we need to think inside the box, we should make the box bigger so that you can include more people. Money is one factor, but it’s not the only factor.