Finance director Ben Childs has resigned after being out on medical leave since March.

Childs submitted his letter of resignation Thursday to interim Cherokee County school superintendent Kim Bagwell and cleaned out his office. Childs had served as the finance director for the Cherokee County School District since 2006.

Reached at her home Sunday afternoon, Bagwell confirmed the finance director’s resignation. She said Childs’ cited personal reasons for his decision to leave the school district.

The finance director’s departure came in the same week school board members learned at an Aug. 16 meeting that the district is on track to finish with at least a $2.2 million budget surplus for the 2009-2010 school year.

The favorable news came two months after school trustees approved a $56 million budget with employee furloughs, a frozen teacher salary scale, and a 20 percent reduction in school budgets. School officials said a $2.9 million sales tax transfer and a lower than expected food service deficit contributed to the budget surplus.

School trustee Billy Blackwell said he is concerned the school board did not find out about the additional money before this year’s budget was approved in June.

“We had to base our budget on figures given us by the district administration, and when those figures are not correct, then it is bad all around,” Blackwell said at Monday’s meeting.

New Cherokee County School Board Chairman Donnie Lee Smith said the school board’s budget committee should have worked more closely with Childs to develop this year’s school budget.

“He (Childs) wasn’t allowed to come to the meetings when the budget was being formulated and the process failed,” Smith told the audience at the school board meeting.

However, Bagwell said the district made every effort to include Childs in budget meetings while developing this year’s spending plan.

“He was never told not to come to the budget meetings,” she said.

Two weeks ago, the school district brought in financial consultant Charles Tillotson to serve as interim finance director. He served as finance director in the Union County School District for six years before leaving in 2006 to become the National Beta Club chief executive officer.

Bagwell said Tillotson is expected to continue to work with assistant superintendent Dr. Carlotta Redish to oversee the district’s financial operations until a permanent finance director is hired.