Stanly County Schools misuse monies to pay utilities

ALBEMARLE, N.C. — Stanly County Schools officials used hundreds of thousands of dollars federally earmarked for special education to keep the lights on instead.

Parent Carla Poplin feels betrayed.

“Just for the misuse of money in such a manner,” Poplin said.

Her 10-year-old son is in the Exceptional Child Program at Central Elementary School and she and many others in Albemarle had no idea that the Stanly County school system was using federal money earmarked for that program to pay utility bills.

That may have been going on for years but only became public several days ago when the system's chief financial officer revealed it at a meeting of the school board's finance committee.

“It is federal money that we can't spend on utilities,” the CFO said.

“To think that that money has been used to pay for other things in the county instead of what it was intended to be used for is kind of sad,” Poplin said.

"Local funds were used to pay those funds back and no EC students were adversely affected," school district officials posted on Facebook.

The school board chairman said Friday that it was an inadvertent situation that they're going to take care of.

Poplin wonders why it went on so long.

“If you knew it was wrong, you don't keep doing it,” Poplin said.

No one could say how much money was used to pay for utilities.

State officials later would not confirm or deny whether they're investigating the Stanly County.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

• Visitation to be held in Rock Hill for slain Peach Stand clerk
• Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon get extra hand, leg in epic Vanity Fair Photoshop fail
• Ft. Bragg soldier charged in South Carolina motel death
• WATCH: Keith Monday's Friday forecast outlook
• North Carolina keeper suspects foul play in 500K bee deaths

Cox Media Group