The former Chief Financial Officer whose lawsuit sparked the stipend controversy in the St. Joseph School District says the experience was a net positive.

Beau Musser says he is now working as a consultant, a “CFO for hire,” and has a pair of clients that are paying him a lot more than the school district did.

“One is a company in Kansas by the name of M Con Construction, an up-and-coming underground utility contractor, and so I’m currently in the process of implementing a professional construction accounting system there,” he says, “and then I’m also basically a part-time, contract CFO for MERIL, a not-for-profit here in St Joe.”

Musser’s lawsuit brought to light decades of stipends paid to administrators in the district, some of which were legitimate, but many which were criticized in a state audit report of the district. The auditor said those stipends could total more $40 million dollars. Members of the school board said that they were unaware of many of those stipends. Many of them were never approved by the board, or were approved weeks after they were made public.

All of that stirred up some bad blood in the district, but Musser tells us the episode gave him a reputation for integrity, which he says is serving him well.

“You know people now, can look and see the integrity that I showed at the St Joe School District,” Musser said. “They know that I can be trusted.”

“In fact both of my clients, one of the main reasons why they hired me was the integrity, and the professionalism, that I showed while I at the St Joe School District.”

When Musser resigned from the school district, the district’s top administration was reorganized, doing away with the position of CFO.