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WS/FCS nears chief financial officer hire after long vacancy

WFDD File photo
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Education building.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools officials say they plan to extend an offer to a new chief financial officer this week.

The district hasn’t had a permanent CFO in almost a year.

Thomas Kranz, who previously held the position, retired last May. His departure came just a couple of months after the district uncovered a multimillion-dollar deficit.

The budget crisis has made finding a replacement challenging. But Superintendent Don Phipps says he hopes to offer the job to a candidate in the coming days.

“We want to make sure that we have proper folks with credentials, and certainly been a lot of pre-screening with that process, been difficult to find individuals qualified for that role," Phipps said. "But we feel like we're at a great place now."

The announcement comes as the district is in the process of developing a budget for next school year.

Phipps named a few funding priorities, including reinstating full-time assistant principals at each school and providing more support for the exceptional children department.

Budget workshops are scheduled for next week. Phipps will provide recommendations to the school board on April 14.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.