The Alamance-Burlington school board has hired the current chief financial officer for Chatham County schools, Tony Messer, to serve as the new chief finance officer for ABSS, after six months with no one to lead the finance department and amid what ABSS officials have for months decried as a financial crisis.
Messer has served as the CFO for Chatham County schools since 2012 and previously as the CFO for Scotland County schools from 2009 to 2012, according to his online resume. He holds Master’s and bachelor’s degrees in accounting from East Carolina University.
Messer comes to ABSS from a school system with 20 schools, 9,124 students, and 1,188 employees, based on the North Carolina public schools statistical profile published by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for the 2023-24 school year, the latest period for which the data is available.
Chatham County schools currently has a $66.5 million county budget, based on the budget ordinance for the 2024-25 fiscal year that Chatham County’s commissioners approved on June 17.
By comparison, ABSS has 38 schools (including the virtual school, early college, alternative school, and the Career and Technical Education Center), approximately 22,246 students, and 2,451 employees, based on the state’s statistical profile and final enrollment report for 2023-24 from ABSS.
ABSS has a $59.3 million county budget, based on the county budget for 2024-25 that Alamance County’s commissioners adopted on June 17.
Messer replaces Kim McVey, who left without notice in mid-February 2024 after serving a year-and-a-half as the CFO, approximately 14 years as the assistant finance officer for ABSS, and a total of 33 years in similar roles with other North Carolina public school systems.
Kim McVey apparently offered her resignation February 16, based on the chain of events that her husband, Rick McVey, a Caswell County commissioner, outlined during the school board’s meeting later that month. Then-ABSS superintendent Dr. Dain Butler instead opted to fire her on Sunday, February 18, according to press releases issued at the time by ABSS.
The school system has since looked to several people to help handle its finances, including: Ricky Lopes, a contract “mentor” through the N.C. Association of School Business Officials (NCASBO); Mark Winters, a retired CFO from Wake County public schools also contracted through NCASBO; Melinda Anderson, an accounts manager for ABSS; and ABSS chief academic officer Revonda Johnson.
In addition to his experience overseeing the finances for the school systems in Chatham and Scotland counties, Messer previously worked as an accountant, specializing in banking and government audits, according to ABSS. A start date for the new CFO has not yet been announced.
Meanwhile, the new ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming is currently scheduled to be sworn into office at Cummings High School at 9:15 a.m., September 18, which coincides with interim superintendent Bill Harrison’s final day of work with ABSS.
