Charles W. Warren wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be involved in the public education system.
For almost 15 years, he has been, but not, perhaps, in the way he originally thought. Warren, 57, has been the chief financial officer of the Fort Smith School District since 2009, after having served 21 years in the private sector.
Warren’s father, Bob, was a longtime elementary school principal in Elkins, and Warren figured a career in education was in the cards. “I always thought I would be an elementary school principal like my dad was,” Warren said. “It was too obvious that I enjoyed business and didn’t really have the flair for classroom teaching.”
Warren said it was clear that accounting was his calling. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to study accounting and never regretted his career path.
“I came to it naturally,” Warren said. “I found I had a flair for it and an interest in it my junior year of high school. Every step along the way it just continued to get affirmed that yes, this is my interest. I don’t mind the hard work. I was made to be an accountant.”
Warren can sound almost poetic when he speaks about accounting. But accounting is also pragmatic; learning its ins and outs put Warren in a better position to have a voice in the way the public school system operates.
“I like the symmetry of it,” Warren said. “I tell people I love the beauty of accounting, the fact that you can get an answer from two different ways, the fact that it balances. It has the ability to reconcile things. It has an accomplishment to it as well as it is its own language.
“If you can learn to speak that language, you can interpret data in a meaningful way. As an interpreter, that gives you an upper hand on some business decisions and business judgment.”
Working for the Fort Smith School District is a perfect blend of all the things Warren loves. He loves accounting, he loves being responsible for taking care of the taxpayers’ money, and he loves public education.
“I brought a passion for public education,” said Warren, a former PTA president. “This was not just a job; it was more of a dream job — being able to marry the things I admired about my parents and their public service with my skills as an accountant.”
Warren couldn’t believe his good fortune when the CFO position opened up in the district. Warren said his work from 1992-2007 at ERC Properties Inc., where he was vice president and assistant controller, prepared him for his role in the school district.
“That prepared me to manage a staff that is made up of clerical people as well as accountants,” Warren said. “To be able to work with a team, maybe not all of them have the educational background that the CPA might have, but they are important pieces of the puzzle. Those 15 years of learning how to manage an accounting staff allowed me to work more seamlessly when I came to work in the school district.”
He has received numerous awards, including those for outstanding public service in 2010 and achievement in government accounting in 2022 from the Arkansas Society of Certified Public Accountants. Just recently, Warren received the Pinnacle of Excellence award from the Association of School Business Officials International.
“Fifteen years later, it definitely affirmed the fact this is a very rewarding experience,” Warren said. “Even if I were to go back into public accounting, it is not going to have the same intrinsic reward I get pretty much every day.”
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