Budget · Forecast · Plan
Financial clarity for the districts and networks that serve students.
I bring together 13+ years working inside K–12 education with an Executive MBA in Finance & Strategy from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business — helping school districts, charter management organizations, and educational entities budget, plan, and make sound financial decisions.
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13+Years inside K–12 public education
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MBAExecutive MBA, Finance & Strategy — UVA Darden
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2024Outstanding Economic Educator — GMU & Richmond Fed
The work
Six places a second set of eyes changes the outcome.
Engagements are scoped as fixed-fee projects or a term retainer. Most begin with a one-hour call and a look at your current budget book.
- Budget development Build or pressure-test the operating budget before it reaches the board — assumptions, staffing costs, contingency.
- Enrollment & revenue forecasting Per-pupil revenue models tied to realistic enrollment scenarios, so the plan holds when the count comes in low.
- Multi-year financial planning Three-to-five year forecasts, fund balance policy, and the tradeoffs behind each out-year assumption.
- Charter network finance School-level P&Ls, growth and facilities modeling, and reporting packages authorizers actually accept.
- Restricted & grant fund planning Aligning categorical and grant dollars to the strategic plan, and sequencing what happens when the funding ends.
- Board & community presentations Turning a 200-page budget into a decision a board can make and a community can follow.
Timing
Where this fits in your fiscal year.
The calendar drives the work. Bring me in early enough and the choices are still open.
Who I work with
Organizations whose budget is a student outcome.
- ✓Public school districtsCentral office finance teams and superintendents' cabinets
- ✓Charter management organizationsSingle-site schools through multi-campus networks
- ✓Independent & parochial schoolsTuition modeling, financial aid, and enrollment risk
- ✓Education nonprofits & foundationsProgram budgeting and grant sustainability planning
Background
Thirteen years in the building. Two years in the numbers.
I'm Drew Dabney. I've spent my career teaching AP Economics and Personal Finance in a public high school, and I teach micro, macro, and entrepreneurship as an adjunct at Northern Virginia Community College. I know what a budget line looks like from the classroom end of it — which positions get cut, which programs quietly stop being funded, and how a spreadsheet decision lands on a student six months later.
I completed an Executive MBA at UVA's Darden School of Business with concentrations in Finance, Strategy, and AI & Data Analytics. That's the other half: the modeling, forecasting, and capital discipline that district finance offices are expected to have but rarely have time to build.
Most consultants who serve districts have never taught in one. Most educators have never built a five-year forecast. The value is in holding both at once.
- Executive MBA — Finance, Strategy, AI & Data Analytics · UVA Darden2026
- Master of Teaching · University of Virginia2014
- B.A. Political Science · Georgia State University2011
- Outstanding Economic Educator · George Mason University & Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond2024
Start here
Send me your budget book. I'll tell you what I see.
A first conversation is free and takes about an hour. Bring the current-year budget, your enrollment trend, and the decision you're trying to make.
ad4yc@alum.darden.edu