Skyview PTO reimbursed for questionable purchases

A former Skyview Elementary School PTO officer has repaid thousands of dollars after school leaders questioned purchases she made using the group’s funds.

Since the woman, Jennifer Edwards, has paid back the money, she will not face criminal charges, according to a campus police report in the case.

A statement to police from Suzy Heald, the PTO president, suggests that Edwards would repay a total of $9,600. However, Lester Miller, a Bibb County school board member who interceded in the case to help resolve it, said the total was not that high. He said he didn’t know the exact figure.

Heald’s statement to police this week said in part, “(Miller) did say we should expect a check by the end of this week of at least $3,000. We had agreed to take three payments if (Edwards) were unable to do the whole amount. The $3,000 amount would be the first of three payments.”

Edwards is “very embarrassed and remorseful” about what happened, said Miller, who is a former Skyview PTO president himself. “She told me she was sorry she put the PTO in that position.”

Attempts to reach Edwards this week were unsuccessful.

The heart of the problem, Miller said, was that Edwards often bought personal products at the same time she purchased items for the school or PTO -- for school parties, teacher retirement gifts and the like -- and then could not account for all of it with the requisite receipts.

Edwards might “buy cookies or cupcakes for an event and also buy personal items,” Miller said. “It was a bunch of small items that added up” over a period of months.

“There were no big-ticket items purchased,” he said. “These were all store purchases” from places such as Staples, Chi-Ches-ters, Sam’s Club and CVS pharmacy.

“She couldn’t produce evidence or receipts to back up the purchases,” he said. “There wasn’t a paper trail” for all of it.

START OF THE PROBLEM

Earlier this summer, first-year Skyview Principal Sara Carlson opened a PTO checking account statement and saw that the account had a deficit of more than $500, according to her statement to police. She, in turn, contacted Heald, who said she was unaware of the situation.

“Numerous questionable checks” had been written on the PTO’s account at Certus Bank over several months, according to a police report, and the PTO debit card had been used for cash withdrawals on occasion.

Carlson and Heald tried repeatedly to reach Edwards, by phone and email, to no avail. They wanted to retrieve the PTO’s checkbook, receipt books and other documents, which they’d been unable to do, their statements to police said.

Soon afterward, the PTO board removed Edwards as treasurer and notified her of that action in a certified letter, according to Carlson’s statement to police.

They consulted an attorney, who told them they could choose to press charges against Edwards or try to get the money back, according to Heald’s police statement.

Since Edwards is a single parent with three children, PTO leaders decided to try to recoup the money, and they enlisted Miller’s help.

Miller offered to reach out to Edwards. He contacted her, retrieved the PTO’s books and helped work out an agreement with Edwards to repay the money that was in question.

Soon after that meeting, $600 from Edwards was deposited into the PTO’s Certus Bank account, clearing a negative balance, the police report noted. The rest of the money was deposited this week in a PTO account opened at another bank, Miller said.

After a review of the receipts that Edwards eventually provided, “If anything was in dispute, it was paid back,” Miller said.

Toward the end of the past school year, he said, PTO leaders got too “casual” about oversight of the organization’s funds.

“A couple of key people” were moving on from the school at the end of (last) school year, he said. “Toward the end of the year, people get relaxed. ... They got too relaxed,” he said.

Among changes put in place, he said, was doing away with the PTO debit card.

“The PTO is not out any money at all,” Miller said. “All money has been accounted for. They’ve been made whole. ... Nobody tried to cut any sweetheart deals. They tried to do what’s right for the kids.”

He added, “It was an eye-opener for them. They’ve learned their lesson. ... If they enforce the safeguards and bylaws (from now on), they’ll be OK.”

ADDRESSING THE MATTER

Steve Smith, the system’s interim superintendent, said this week that he has appointed a systemwide task force to find ways to avoid similar problems within parent-teacher organizations.

The Skyview case marked the second time in recent weeks that authorities have investigated the handling of a school’s PTO funds. Earlier this month, Bibb County sheriff’s investigators arrested Eloise Maxine Reid, 47, and charged her with stealing nearly $34,000 from the Vineville Academy PTO.

Reid, who was serving as treasurer of the PTO, allegedly wrote at least 17 checks to herself and her accounting firm, draining $33,975 from the account. Officials said they became aware of the issue when Reid wrote a bad check for $1,800. That prompted the bank to inform Vineville Academy Principal Kristy Graham that there was less than $1,000 in the account, even though it was supposed to have more than $30,000.

Now, Ron Collier, the system’s deputy superintendent for finance, will lead a study group along with Sharon Roberts, the director of accounting.

Smith also said Georgia’s representative for the Parent Teacher Association would be in Macon next month to talk to principals about safeguards and best practices for their school groups. Smith said he would recommend that schools affiliate with PTA, rather than form a PTO, because of the training, protocols and safeguards that group provides. PTA also offers insurance that can protect groups in the event of misappropriated money, he said.

That organization’s expectations “are a lot more stringent” than other groups, he said.

In the Skyview case, the investigating officer told Carlson and Heald that they should have shared their concerns with authorities a lot earlier than they did.

The officer’s report also notes: “Due to the fact that they had discovered, confronted, worked out an arrangement with Edwards and ultimately accepted proceeds from her, that no criminal charges could be brought against Edwards, as the matter is no longer criminal,” but civil.

Heald told the officer that PTO leaders all agreed from the outset that they did not want to prosecute Edwards in lieu of recovering the money.

This story was originally published August 29, 2014 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Skyview PTO reimbursed for questionable purchases ."