News Photo by Jason Ogden Alpena Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Diane Block crunches some numbers at her desk on an adding machine. Block has worked on school finances for nearly 20 years and has loved helped keeping the school district running over the years.

ALPENA — For nearly 20 years Alpena Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Diane Block has been crunching the districts budget numbers to make the school district an effective and successful place to educate area children.

She did not always have the title of assistant superintendent of the district and started out as the director of business and operations, but she said she essentially has had the same role for her entire tenure with the district.

Block started her career working in public practice accounting after she went to Central Michigan University, earning her bachelors and masters degrees in accounting. She also has an educational specialist degree from Grand Valley State University.

She said working with school finances in private practice piqued her interest in working for schools.

“I actually did a lot of school audits for a lot of years, as well as other municipalities, and that is what got me interested in schools,” she said. “I saw what they did and even though I really enjoyed auditing I wanted to do more.”

Block explained that in her beginning line of accounting it was all about helping clients have the most amount of money at the end of the year. She said she went into educational accounting because it could make a difference down the line in a person’s life, other than just a larger amount of money in the bank.

“I think it was more about what matters, education matters in the world,” she said.

She said although she is not a teacher, there are many in the district like her who work as support staff to get kids from kindergarten through graduation successfully.

“You need everyone in the school to make it work,” she said. “Financial resources are very important and my supporting role is to make sure we have resources aligned in the way that best fits the strategic vision of the school board.”

But working on school finances to make sure students have what they need has not been easy over the years, according to Block. She said Alpena’s declining student population has forced the district to downsize every year.

“It’s managing budget reductions all the time,” she said. “It never goes away and some years are worse than others.”

Moves made by the administration have not always been popular, she said. They have included cutting pay for employees and closing facilities and Block said to keep the district alive, but through the cuts the district has remained open and Block said the future of the district is good.

I see a very bright future for Alpena Public Schools, we are doing some great things, we have always been able to keep essential programs intact and do other programs,” she said. “We have not had to cut a lot of things that might be tempting to cut, we still have arts, we still have music, we still have career technical education, we have athletics.”

Block said she has enjoyed her job over the years though she sometimes misses her previous accounting jobs.

“I have found a home in Alpena and I still, in some regards some days yearned to be an accountant again,” she said. “But district has given me lots of opportunities.”

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.