Report: APS employee stole money from elementary school

Former bookkeeper alleged to have taken over $1,000

A former Albuquerque Public School bookkeeper stole over $1,000 from an elementary school, according to a missing funds report — money that was supposed to go toward yearbooks and field trips.

The former bookkeeper at Alameda Elementary School was taking funds for about three months before she was caught, according to an APS report.

The report says another employee was filling in for the bookkeeper — who was not named — and happened to notice some money and checks were not deposited, including a $500 donation check.

A monthlong investigation at the school revealed that $1,352.22 in checks and cash were taken from the school.

When confronted with the missing deposits, the bookkeeper told the APS Police Department that the money and checks were at her house. She would later say her husband, “thought the money was theirs so he deposited it,” according to the report.

But after APS police investigated and reviewed her bank statements, the bookkeeper admitted taking the money, the report says.

Ben Lubkeman, executive director of accounting for the district, said the bookkeeper never gave a reason why.

In fact, he said her bank statements made the theft confusing.

“You could tell by her bank statement, really, why she was stealing this small sum of money made no sense whatsoever,” he said. “She reimbursed the school.”

The money from the school at 412 Alameda NW was primarily made up of yearbook sales, field trip funds and the donation check, Lubkeman said.

“You never want to see theft going on anywhere,” Lubkeman said. “But when they are stealing from the students, it makes it that much worse.”

While the report said the missing funds were recovered, it also noted that the district doesn’t know if the school took a further loss because “checks were found at the bookkeeper’s home that the school did not realize were missing and were not receipted.”

The bookkeeper has been terminated from the district, and the APS police report was forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office per protocol, Lubkeman said.

He said that, from there, the DA decides if charges will be filed.

Overall, the accounting director said a theft like this happens one or two times a year in the district.

And he said timing was part of the reason it took three months to notice the money missing in this case.

“We have other controls in place,” he said. “However, due to the timing of the start of the school year, ... one item we struggle with, that we’re still trying to find a better way to approach things is that, at the elementary and middle school levels, everybody is gone by the end of May and doesn’t return until August when school begin.”

He said that, in the summer months, no one is doing bank reconciliation, and the finance department doesn’t have any bank statements from the schools.

“At some point, hopefully, we will find some workaround so that does not happen in the future, but it is an ongoing concern here,” he said.

When school is in session, there is more regular monitoring of activity funds and they are audited annually, he said.