Missing School Money

For the second time in three years, money has been found to be missing at a Monroe City School. An audit conducted by an accounting firm showed several findings in its report to the school board, most noticeably almost $30,000 missing from Roy N. Shelling Elementary School. According to media reports, the audit was a part of the overall findings for the school system, but the Shelling revelation of the missing money had already been known by the school board and the incident was according to Supt. Brent Vidrine, was handled in “an appropriate” manner. But questions arises as to how could so much money end up missing and no one appeared to notice. Did the public know what/how happen and what has been done about the “misappropriations” of funds dedicated to the students? The community was told by Supt. Vidrine that the alleged theft happened between 2017 and 2018. But according to the superintendent, the theft was discovered by the board in early 2019, almost two years after the money disappeared.

No one as of press time has been apprehended/arrested to any role in the alleged mishandling of the funds delegated to the student activity account, but this incident should raise even more red flags in the board’s system of accountability in the way that money is accounted . We now know that law enforcement officials was contacted, but no one seems to know the results of any investigation as to who was responsible for the thefts. One school board official said that there were “some persons who had access” to where the funds were, but there was no determination as to who took the funds. Though both the school board and Shelling School personnel know who had access to the funds, as of press time, the public is being told that it “is not possible” to know who exactly took the funds. As far as the public is concerned, the investigation is not “officially over” by law enforcement authorities. In the meantime, there appears to be a silver lining for the students. The school supposedly had theft insurance for situations such as this. The funds should be replaced back in their original source to those student groups that was affected. But in the end, it is another black eye for the school board.