A finance official with more than 11 years of accounting expertise joined the Pilot Point school district recently as its new business manager.

Nikki Hamblin, a 1998 University of Texas at Dallas graduate, said she’s setting out to help the district reach its financial goals.

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Nikki Hamblin is the new business manager at the Pilot Point school district. She comes from the Richardson school district, where she worked with a budget of about $260 million this year to maintain 55 campuses.

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As manager, she will monitor the district’s budget and risk management, and will present financial statements before the school board. In her short time with the district, Hamblin said she has enjoyed working closely with staffers to accomplish district goals.

“It’s important to work with everybody in the organization. Everybody works together toward the goal to educate children,” she said. “In the business office, I think it’s my job to support the goal of educating those children.”

Hamblin came to Pilot Point from Richardson, her hometown school district, where she assisted in handling a budget of about $260 million this year for 55 campuses. In a span of more than 10 years with the district, she worked as a director of finance and as an accounting and cash manager. While with the finance department, she said, the district earned excellence awards from the Government Finance Officers Association and the Association of School Business Officials.

Hamblin said several of her family members have business backgrounds. Her grandfather owned a toy store in Colorado when she was a child, and his example taught her to be responsible with money and to the organization with which she works.

She has always loved numbers, she said, and in college she decided to major in accounting. She said she’s found the profession rewarding.

“It’s kind of like a puzzle,” she said. “I just kind of found that interesting.”

She and her family live in Celina and the opportunity in Pilot Point allowed her a shorter commute.

“I was really excited to see this opportunity become available and be closer to home,” she said.

Pilot Point Superintendent Glenn Barber said Hamblin started working with the district in January.

She replaces former Business Manager Jimmy Harrod, who retired in February after working in the position a year and a half.

Five people applied for the job when the opening was posted in November, Barber said. He said he recommended Hamblin to the school board because of her previous experience working at Richardson and because of her knowledge of how to change fiscal years, a process Pilot Point plans for the next school year.

Barber said the district plans to change its fiscal year start date from September to July.

Crystal Shirley, executive director of financial services with Richardson schools, is Hamblin’s friend and former supervisor.

She said Hamblin is detail-oriented, professional and a “great communicator.” Shirley said Hamblin helped the finance department become one of the first districts in the state to implement the Oracle accounting software program. Shirley said Hamblin also created a financial file for the district that allows the finance department to produce easy-to-read statements at year’s end.

“She has a rare blend of accounting and technical expertise that made her very invaluable to me,” Shirley said of Hamblin. “We’ll miss her greatly, Pilot Point is very fortunate to have her.”

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com .