EX-CHIEF of Covenant Keepers under investigation by LR police.

Little Rock detectives are investigating whether a former charter school superintendent forged more than $188,000 in four checks in the past month, according to a police report released Thursday.

Valerie Tatum, former superintendent of Covenant Keepers College Preparatory Charter School in south Little Rock, reportedly cashed four checks between Jan. 16 and Feb. 8 that totaled $188,905, the report said.

The report, filed by the school’s current superintendent, Phong H. Tran, says the school’s bookkeeper noticed the withdrawals — which Tatum is not authorized to make — on Feb. 8. Tran filed a report with the Police Department six days after discovering the missing funds, according to the report.

Tatum left the Covenant Keepers school last year. The school of approximately 114 students is currently run by Friendship Education Foundation, a Washington, D.C., organization that operates charter schools in multiple states.

Friendship Education Foundation chief operation officer Joe Harris said Wednesday that the amount of money taken “drained” the account, and a foundation spokesman said only a few thousand dollars were left behind.

The report said that Tatum made an unauthorized withdrawal of $19,827.40 on Jan. 16; $9,637.53 on Jan. 25; $147,008 on Jan. 25 and $12,433 on Feb. 8, the same day the bookkeeper noticed the missing funds. The money was withdrawn from an account at U.S. Bank.

Harris said Wednesday that the bank account has since been closed and the new account will require signatures from two officials authorized to make financial transactions. A new board of directors is also in place, Harris said.

Though initially Harris said the withdrawals put the school in jeopardy of closing, school representatives said later that a contingency plan is in place to keep the doors open until the end of the academic year.

Police Department spokesman officer Eric Barnes said Thursday that the investigation is in its very early stages, but detectives are tracking down what exactly happened to the money.

Barnes said investigators would be talking with all the involved parties in the coming days in order to build a case and — if necessary — press charges.

“There’s two sides to the story, and we have to find out what happened,” Barnes said.