Henry J. Raymond, a longtime budget and fiscal administrator in city government, is expected to become the Baltimore school system's chief financial officer Oct. 8.
Baltimore's school board was set to approve Raymond for the post last night, but terrorist attacks in New York and Washington led school board officials to cancel the meeting.
Raymond was chief financial officer for the school system from 1995 until 1997, when he was hired as the city's deputy budget director.
Raymond, 44, is budget chief for the City of Baltimore, a position he has held for 17 months, since being promoted from the deputy's job.
In his new position, Raymond will be one of the top four school officials, in charge of an $859 million annual school budget, as well as the business and financial management of the 96,000-student system.
"I'm delighted," said Carmen V. Russo, chief executive officer of city schools. "I think he is extremely skilled and ready to be chief financial officer. The fact that he has been in the schools shortens his learning curve."
Raymond was the city schools' chief financial officer at a time shortly before the legislature created an independent school board, appointed jointly by the governor and the mayor, to run the schools.
His new job carries more responsibility than it did before 1997, when the city schools were a city government agency.
"I look forward to being a member of senior management of the school system. It is a very unique opportunity," Raymond said yesterday.
Raymond will take the schools job at a time of relative financial stability for the system. But 15 months ago, a former chief financial officer, Roger Reese, resigned shortly after it was reported that he had been involved in awarding lucrative, no-bid contracts.
Raymond grew up in Anne Arundel County and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from North Carolina A&T; University in 1979. He has two master's degrees, including a master of administrative management with a specialization in business administration from Bowie State University in 1986. He has taken accounting courses at Catonsville Community College.
A Catonsville resident, he is married and has two children.