NEW CASTLE -- Two months after notifying Superintendent Katherine Rodgers of its intention to fire her, the Craig County School Board voted unanimously to terminate her contract effective Tuesday night.

The board spent three hours in closed session before taking the vote at Craig County High School.

The resolution didn't list specific reasons for Rodgers' firing, but asserted that it was "for sufficient cause and for breach of contract."

It asserts that Rodgers was provided with specific allegations and had an opportunity to respond to those, but that "after reviewing the evidence and arguments in opposition to the allegations," the board still believed it had cause to remove Rodgers from her position.

The resolution went on to say that because of the "private nature" of those allegations, the board authorized the chairman, James Stephens, "to deliver to Dr. Rodgers a more detailed explanation of the actual findings."

It added that she was "terminated without additional pay or benefits, effective May 20, 2008."

Craig County High School former Principal Ron Gordon, who was named acting superintendent after Rodgers was placed on leave in March, will continue in that position.

Rodgers became a lightning rod for parental criticism soon after her arrival in the fall of 2005.

She had previously been an assistant superintendent in the Montgomery County school division for six years. When she resigned from that job in November 2005, her departure was shrouded in secrecy that Superintendent Tiffany Anderson said was mandated by a confidentiality agreement.

Almost exactly a month later, Rodgers was named as Craig County's new superintendent. In an interview with the New Castle Record at the time, she declined to talk about the reasons for her departure from Montgomery County.

She was hired in Craig at a salary of $75,000, less than principals make in some nearby counties. But Rodgers drew the ire of some taxpayers for working to have her salary increased in a county where the school system has historically been strapped for cash and her starting salary was twice the county's median household income.

The school board agreed that she deserved more money, however, and in March 2007 raised her salary to $91,000 -- which was still among the lowest for a division superintendent in Virginia -- and gave her a four-year contract.

By that fall, Rodgers had drawn the attention of a group of disgruntled parents who believed her leadership was damaging morale among teachers and staff, and who were suspicious of her financial management.

Just three weeks before school opened in August, the principals of both the county's schools resigned unexpectedly to take jobs elsewhere. Although at least one of those principals insisted that neither of them left because of Rodgers, some parents continued to blame her for the last-minute changes.

And parent Anita Hinson used the state's Freedom of Information Act to seek detailed spending records that she believed would show that the school division misspent funds intended for Title I programs to help disadvantaged students.

The apparent turmoil in the schools led to the defeat of both the incumbent chairman and vice chairman of the school board last fall. Before and after the election, parents and teachers packed school board meetings to voice complaints and concerns, many of them aimed at Rodgers.

Early this year, she came under fire again when she challenged the results of a county audit that showed the school division had overspent its budget. The audit noted that the schools never spent more than they were appropriated.

At their March 24 meeting this year, the board voted that it was time for Rodgers to go, and announced its intention to fire her, although it left open the opportunity for her to respond to that decision.

Less than a week later, the federal Department of Education sent a special agent to investigate the school division, apparently in response to parental complaints about the use of federal funds. No results of that investigation have been announced.