Former MISD Employee Charged with Misappropriation of Funds
By: Stephanie Sobic
Updated: August 18, 2010
Taking money that's not yours is bad enough, but finding out that the money stolen was money raised by students…is even worse.
With the first day from school just days away, MISD is kicking off the new school year with the arrest of a former employee. And, it turns out the more than $76,000 taken in this scandal was money earned by students, only to be swiped by a former secretary.
"One of the goals that our board members raised their hand to adopt for this year is to be fiscally responsible and to make sure, it's not our money," says MISD Superintendent, Dr. Ryder Warren.
If convicted, former Midland Freshmen Secretary, Anette Fitzugh, could be responsible for pocketing $77,000.
"We had seen some irregularities in the accounting of one of our campus activity funds," explains Dr. Warren.
Which, is an account that all campuses have, its money raised by students.
"Kid fundraisers, kids who sell pencils and candy bars, things like that," says Dr. Warren.
After launching an investigation in May, MISD's internal auditor found some red flags that didn't add up. So, Dr. Warren called police and handed over what turned into a criminal investigation.
"Several checks were written out to herself from the school's activity fund. Further investigation showed that some of the money was gathered through the cafeteria fund, taken from deposits which never made it to the bank," explains Sgt. Sgt. Alfredo Grimaldo with the Midland Police Department.
Along with bad checks, Fitzugh was allegedly creating false invoices dating back to September 2007.
“On the invoices it would state that it was actually from a company they did normal business with, so that when it was found or reviewed by principals or administration it would just go unnoticed," explains Sgt. Grimaldo.
"As far as things go for MISD, Dr. Warren said he's looking into procedure. Were the rights steps in place and if so, were they just being ignored? Not only at Midland Freshmen, but at all 36 campuses.
"Make sure we have the checks and balances in place and make sure we're following those from the campus principal all the way down to whoever has responsibility of handling that check book," says Dr. Warren.
The former employee resigned from MISD shortly after the internal investigation began in May. On Tuesday, Fitzugh turned herself into police, and because MISD receives federal funds to operate as a district this is now a federal case.
