Schools

Ellington School District Welcomes New Director of Business Services

Meg Devlin is coming to town after occupying the same position in Stafford for the last four years.

Meg Devlin has only been in her current position for a couple weeks, but she’s had nothing other than a “positive experience.”

Devlin is the new Director of Business Services for the Ellington school district. She takes over for who was there for 30 years.

“The staff here is fabulous, they do a phenomenal job,” she said. “You can’t ask for better than that. They were excited to have me come here and I was excited to come so it’s really a nice fit. This is an established district that has a long history of supporting education.”

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Devlin held the same position in Stafford and had been there since 2008 and prior to that, she had worked in Ashford for five years. Ashford was her first position in education as she had been in the private industry before that. She said that she’s glad she made the jump from the private sector to education.

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“You feel like you’re making a difference,” Devlin said. “That’s what it’s all about. Working in education is nice. I worked in the private sector for a long time, it’s a real change of philosophy – there’s no profit motive, there’s no pressure for that kind of piece. You’re really concerned what you can do to improve the students’ experience in school. As the business person, you provide the support that helps the students at the basic level – maintain facilities and have the right tools for the teachers and all that kind of stuff.”

Devlin said she and her husband actually lived in Ellington when they were first married. They then bought a house in Ashford and have been there for 21 years. She’s glad to be back.

“This is just a really nice community,” she said. “It was really nice to come back to Ellington. This is a nice place to work.”

Even though she’s only been here a couple weeks, Devlin has enjoyed her time.

“Everyone that I’ve met has been wonderful,” she said. “People that have come here from other districts have said, ‘You’re going to love it here.’ I think it’s a really nice, professional, supportive environment for the students as well as the staff here.”

Devlin said that what she loves most about the job is that she doesn’t do the same thing two days in a row, and is always at the center of what’s happening.

“A lot of people have no idea what a business manager’s job description is,” she said. “They don’t really know what they do for a living. We do everything. It’s never boring and you’re always doing something with staff in a different area at a different time.”

It’s a busy time in the Ellington school district with the and getting underway. The Stafford district had just finished renovating schools the year before Devlin started, so she was on the tail end of all the paperwork associated with that project. This will be her first project that she will be from the beginning.

“To be in on the front end, I’m excited to have the opportunity to be on the front end so that I can kinda bring some of the things I learned being on the reporting end,” she said. “It’s exciting to have the opportunity.”

She said she’s also always open to the opportunity to learn new things.

Devlin began in Ellington on July 9, so it was not a long time to close the fiscal year for one school system and begin a new year in another. Because of this, and because the budget belonged to her all year, Devlin will be helping the district in Stafford with its year end close.

She said so herself, it’s never boring and you never go home saying you didn’t do much at work that day.


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