Kelsey Bailey • CFO | Little Rock School District
As CFO of the Little Rock School District, Kelsey Bailey is responsible for making sure all of the district’s financial needs are met, while also overseeing a $43 million reduction in state desegregation aid over the past three years.
“It’s been a challenge … trying to maintain the level of services,” he said, adding that the district, which has a $350 million annual budget, has had “clean audits” every year. “So that has been a significant achievement.”
The 42-year-old Fordyce native has been the district’s CFO since 2009. The district, which employs about 3,600, has more than 24,000 students.
He credits his late grandfather, Earmon Harris, and late father, John Bailey, with instilling in him a “work ethic, integrity and character, … those things you can’t buy or learn anywhere.”
Bailey, who has a degree in accounting from the University of Central Arkansas and an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, began his career as financial manager and staff accountant with New Horizon Community Development Corp. in Fordyce. The director, Margaret McGhee, “taught me a lot about customer service and focusing on all levels.”
He later moved to Little Rock and worked as project manager for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where he completed general ledger analysis for outpatient clinics. He then took a job as position control and payroll manager for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in Little Rock.
In 2005, Bailey was named director of financial services at UA Little Rock and worked there for four years before going to work for the LRSD.
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