Posted on 08/07/2003 8:32:27 AM PDT by 2Jedismom
Tecumseh (OK) School Principal Under Investigation For Missing Funds
TECUMSEH, Okla. -- A Tecumseh school principal is under investigation after $27,000 came up missing from a fund established to pay for new playground equipment, Eyewitness News 5 reported Wednesday.
Secretary Ellen Standridge told state authorities about the money missing from the Cross Timbers Elementary School's Activities Fund. Standridge said students raised the money.
"Sometimes they would sell cookie dough to the people around town," she said. "One time, we had a brochure sale where they sold like candles things like that."
As secretary of the activities fund, Standridge kept the school's books for the fund-raisers.
"I was going through my books and it didn't seem like we were having very big profits," she said.
Standridge said she believes school principal Susan Foote was pocketing cash from the fund.
"Usually, Mrs. Foote collected all those envelopes first, and then she would send some to me to count that money," she said.
A Tecumseh School District audit last February found $27,000 missing.
Sources told Eyewitness News 5 that Tecumseh School Superintendent Tom Wilsie failed to inform his school board of the missing money for six months, citing legal concerns.
Wilsie said because Foote's employment is a personnel matter, he would not comment on whether she would be back at Cross Timbers this fall.
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