L.A. Unified’s Top Financial Officer Will Leave for Private Sector Job

The chief financial officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District will leave Nov. 9 to take a private sector job, school officials said.

Henry Jones, who worked his way up from laborer to the $141,410-a-year job overseeing a $6-billion budget, did not disclose where he will work next.

In a resignation letter, Jones, 57, said he was leaving with the district on solid financial footing.

“He will perhaps be remembered most for his skillful management of the district budget during the early 1990s when we experienced massive budget cuts which brought the district near to bankruptcy,” Superintendent Ruben Zacarias said.

Jones was passed over this summer for promotion to chief administrative officer, the district’s top operations job, which went to business manager David Koch.

He also became embroiled in controversy this summer after recommending the termination of the district’s director of internal audits, who later said that lapses in financial controls were resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in fraud and waste.

Jones could not be reached for comment Monday.

Jones joined the district in 1961 as a low-level operations worker. In 1971 he became an area operations director. He was named director of budget services in 1983 and chief financial officer in 1994.