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Lowell Rogers
The day after announcing that its top financial official had been dismissed amid a financial crisis, the Alamance-Burlington School System administrator tapped to temporarily step in to that role was suspended.
Deputy Superintendent James Lowell Rogers, 47, has been suspended with pay because on Monday he was served with a criminal summons on a misdemeanor charge of failure to report a crime against a juvenile.
According to court records, the incident Rogers is accused of not reporting happened on Nov. 13. The court records say the summons was issued by the State Bureau of Investigation but contain no information about the incident itself.
Rogers is scheduled to appear at a hearing in Alamance District Court on March 7.
Calling it a personnel matter, the school district would not provide any other information except that “suspending an employee is our standard protocol when circumstances like this arise.”
“ABSS takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our students,” the statement said. “We have been cooperating fully with law enforcement and we want to assure you that we are taking steps to address it.”
Rogers, who has worked for the district since July 2022, had been named Monday as the person who would oversee the school district’s finances temporarily after the dismissal of Chief Financial Officer Kim McVey.
A statement on Monday from Superintendent Dain Butler said that the school system was working with the Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Association of School Business Officials to hire an interim CFO to help complete work on the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education discussed some budget-cutting options last week to address what it calls a $3.2 million shortfall through the end of June.
Rising utility costs, increased staff benefits, substitute teacher costs, fluctuations in insurance costs, rising charter school costs and some non-teaching positions that are staffed over the state allotment have been blamed for the budget deficit.
Three proposals presented to the school board last week could potentially save a total of more than $3.6 million.
One proposal would eliminate vacant positions for such positions as high school counselors, assistant principals and school nurses. It would save about $1.7 million.
Another proposal, with a potential annual savings of $181,071, would reduce the number of months that some employees work, which would reduce their pay. This would affect some assistant principals, high school counselors, and exceptional children and student services staff.
A third, with a potential annual savings of more than $1.7 million, would lay off some assistant principals and part-time middle school office support staff, and it would cut dual-language offerings at all middle schools, eliminate fourth and fifth grades at the ABSS Virtual School, and cut some elementary elective offerings.
The school system’s finances also are being examined by the the Joint Legislative Commission on Government Operations at the request of state Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance.
