By AMY JONES / Associate Editor

HOOVER — The Hoover City Schools chief financial officer was recently honored for her work to streamline the student registration process for Hoover City Schools.

Cathy Antee was honored by the Association of School Business Officials International with its Pinnacle of Excellence Award for her efforts.

Antee came up with a strategy to have all students register online, which saves the school district approximately $60,000 a year in postage and mailing, personnel and printing costs.

Approximately 75 percent of Hoover students use the online payment system, which helped increase payments from $300,000 in 2008 to more than $1 million in 2010.

“The collection of fees using the Web-based process has provided more instructional time for our teachers,” Antee says. “They no longer have to keep track of money brought in by the students, field trip forms or parent authorization forms. Creating an environment that reduces the administrative burden from our teachers allows their focus to remain centered on the needs and achievements of their students.”

With her award, Antee will receive $5,000 in cash, $5,000 worth of furniture for the school system and an all-expenses-paid trip to the ASBOI Annual Meeting and Expo.