The Limestone County School Board voted 5-2 to hire Kimberly H. Hubbard as the districts new chief school financial officer during a meeting early Thursday morning.

Hubbard will bring 23 years of managerial, public accounting and payroll and benefits experience to the position, having most recently worked as a tax manager for Hall Albright Garrison & Barnes PC in Huntsville.

None of the five candidates who applied for the position had previous CSFO experience. Charles Shoulders, president of the school board, said Hubbard’s managerial experience gave her an edge over the other candidates.

Board member Edward Winters said, “I think her leadership experiences and the way she prepared for the interview influenced our decision to choose her.”

Bret McGill and Earl Glaze cast the two dissenting votes.

McGill said he would have preferred a candidate with more school finance experience but is in full support of Hubbard now that the board has selected her.

“She is going to have a learning curve, but hopefully she will get us back on track,” McGill said.

Both McGill and Winters mentioned two key areas they would like their new CSFO to focus on as the financial head of the school system — more transparency and increased reserves.

“We want to see our reserves go back up,” McGill said. “It’s easier to do the things you need to do if you’re financially sound.”

Winters said he would like Hubbard to “speak directly to where the money in the budget comes from, how the money is spent, how spending is approved and how funding gets moved around.”

Hubbard will earn $90,000 per year plus benefits, a signifiant increase compared to her current salary. She will be subject to a one-year probationary period, after which the board will evaluate Hubbard’s performance. If the evaluation is positive, the board will recommend that she be given a three-year contract.

Hubbard said the position will require “hard recommendations to get the finances back on track.”

“The role will require me to take the reins and handle money in a beneficial way for the betterment of Limestone County Schools,” she said.

Hubbard said she will turn in a two-weeks notice to her employer next week and will be ready to take over the county’s CSFO position by mid-January.

In other business, the board unanimously approved two new contract renewals with Edgenuity Inc. at a cost of $59,000 and $81,750, respectively. The first contract allows the school system to continue to use Compass/Odyssey software, a computer program the county’s special education department relies heavily on.

The second contract renewal allows for continued licensing of software used by the Success Academy and the Virtual School at the Limestone Country Career Technical Center.