School board appoints interim finance officer

Superintendent Dain Butler announced Feb. 19 that Chief Financial Officer Kim McVey had been dismissed and that Deputy Superintendent Lowell Rogers would oversee the school district’s finances until a replacement could be found, but Rogers was suspended the next day after being served with a criminal summons on a misdemeanor charge of failure to report a crime against a juvenile.

The State Bureau of Investigation has said that Rogers failed to report in November the allegation that Eastlawn Elementary Principal Daniel McInnis, 43, sexually assaulted a child on school property.

After Rogers’ suspension, Anderson was named acting finance officer.

The shuffle of officials comes as the school district is trying to right its finances in the face of a $3.2 million shortfall through the end of the current school year while also trying to craft a budget for the 2024-25 school year.

ABSS is working with the North Carolina Association of School Business Officials and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to try to find a permanent chief finance officer.