Ex-school worker accused of theft
More than $216K taken from Stillwater system
A former Stillwater Public Schools employee is accused of stealing student nutrition program money for more than seven years after district management reported to investigators that bank deposits didn’t match receipts at school cafeterias.
Stacy Kay Hampton, 52, faces one count of felony embezzlement in Payne County District Court after accusations she stole more than $216,000 from Fiscal Year 2013 through Fiscal Year 2019 while working as an administrative assistant for the school nutrition services division.
She remained Wednesday in the Payne County jail on $75,000 bond. An attorney representing Hampton could not immediately be reached for comment.
While Hampton was on administrative leave in May 2019 for an unrelated issue, the nutrition services division director discovered discrepancies while reconciling the school nutrition account, according to an investigative audit report published Wednesday by State Auditor Cindy Byrd.
The division director contacted the chief financial officer for Stillwater Public Schools, who launched an internal investigation dating back to January 2011.
When the investigation identified the large sum of missing money, the local police, as well as District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas and Byrd’s office, were notified.
Investigators compared bank deposit amounts to documents and system reports from individual school sites in the district.
School officials also reviewed travel claims submitted by Hampton, which show the dates she traveled to the bank to make deposits on behalf of the nutrition division, according to the state auditor’s report.
Hampton, whose primary responsibilities, according to investigators, were collecting school nutrition funds from various schools, preparing the deposits and taking the money to the bank for deposit, is accused of stealing the money from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2019.
Investigators learned that before money leaves school cafeterias for deposit, each site manager generates a report showing the total amount of currency, coins and checks received. A site deposit is prepared and reconciled to the point of sale system report. Each
site-level deposit includes the report and a handwritten deposit slip signed by the cafeteria manager or cashier.
All documents must be reconciled before going out for deposit. The deposit and paperwork are put into a bank bag and locked.
Hampton was tasked with receiving all site deposits and creating a district-wide deposit, according to investigators.
For example, investigators said on Oct. 1, 2018, a total of $1,783.85 should have been deposited into the lunch account at Simmons Bank, but only $1,683.85 was actually deposited, meaning $100 was skimmed from the total.
Furthermore, investigators said, there were 169 deposits between Aug. 2, 2018, and May 28, 2019, for a total of $228,927. When compared to internal records, a total of $252,757 was reported as cash and checks received during that same period, meaning $23,830 or 9% of the money was misappropriated, according to investigators.
“Based on our findings, this employee was literally taking food out of the mouths of children,” Byrd said in a news release
In a statement, the Stillwater Public Schools said it takes its responsibility as a steward of public funds very seriously.
“When the District learned of a discrepancy in its SPS Nutrition Services account, it conducted a comprehensive internal investigation and contacted law enforcement and the Oklahoma State Auditor’s Office,” the statement said. “The district continues to cooperate with law enforcement and state authorities in the investigation and prosecution of this matter. The District appreciates the ongoing assistance of the Oklahoma state auditor, the Payne County district attorney, and the Stillwater Police Department in this matter.”
Still, the state auditor’s investigation revealed what it called “a significantly inadequate segregation of duties related to the (school nutrition services’) administrative assistant’s duties.”
For most of the audit period, Hampton was solely responsible for receiving funds from the individual school sites, preparing the deposit, taking the deposit to the bank and reconciling the bank statements for the school nutrition holding account, according to the state auditor.
“This increased the risk and provided opportunity for funds to be misappropriated without detection,” the report says. “There were no mitigating controls such as periodic reviews of reconciliations or reviews of deposits compared to original source documents by someone independent of collecting and depositing the funds.”
Also, there were no written policies and procedures related to the collection, transportation, physical safeguarding, deposit and reconciliation of nutrition program funds, according to the state auditor.
Byrd’s office recommended the development of detailed written policies, that at least two people prepare deposits, and that bank reconciliation be conducted by someone independent of the depositing process.
Periodic independent reviews of bank reconciliations and a comparison of deposit slips, as well as periodic reviews of point-of-sale system reports, changes and edits for evidence of unusual trends or transactions, also were recommended.