Ex-school secretary charged with theft

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006

A former financial secretary at South Carroll High School has been charged with stealing more than $200,000 over six years from the Sykesville school.

Wendy Sue Bowers, 39, of Taneytown is charged with one count of scheming to steal money and seven counts of actual theft totaling $206,564, school system officials said at a Tuesday's news conference called to announce the charges.

Each count carries a $25,000 fine or 15 years in prison, and Bowers also could have to pay restitution, said Jerry Barnes, the Carroll County state’s attorney. The investigation is continuing, he said.

According to court records, Bowers told state police that she took the money, when they went to her home June 1 to question her. The court documents were handed out at Tuesday’s new conference.

Andrew Stone, Bowers’ attorney, said bail was set for $50,000, but she remained in jail on Wednesday. Her trial is tentatively scheduled for October, he said, declining to comment further.

The money taken from South Carroll High was from fund-raising and other student group accounts, not from the school’s operating budget, Superintendent Charles Ecker said at the news conference held at the Board of Education offices in Westminster.

“I’m outraged,“ he said. “This was a trusted employee. I felt betrayed. I feel sorry for the students and staff at South Carroll High School.“

Bowers is no longer employed with the school system, Ecker added. She had been at South Carroll High School since 1994, and before that had worked in the central office, he said in his statement.

Brad Martin, the school system’s comptroller, said in a statement at the news conference that he discovered discrepancies in financial accounts at the school in February 2006, while preparing for an audit by the Middle States Association, the national accreditation program.

Martin said he asked Bowers — who handled cash flow for student accounts and vending services — about the discrepancies. He said Bowers told him that she and the principal were aware of the deficit and planned to make up the money with fund-raising later in the school year.

A. George Phillips, former principal at South Carroll, retired this summer and took a job with the Washington County school system. Ecker said Phillips' retirement was not related to the alleged theft.

Martin said he followed up with Phillips on May 19 after noticing the negative balances still existed. Martin said Phillips told him that he was never informed of the deficits.

Phillips told The Gazette Wednesday that he is cooperating with the State's Attorney's Office on the investigation. He said he was “not aware of the size of the deficits.“

“It's a very sad situation,“ he said in a phone interview. “I'm sure it's something that will take a long time to build trust again.“

During each school year, a high school’s student group accounts could total between $400,000 and $500,000, Martin said. Michelle Parrish, the school system's finance supervisor, conducted an audit in mid-May and found about $50,000 missing from the school’s accounts, school system officials said.

The school system immediately called the State’s Attorney’s Office, Ecker said. Insurance will replace the missing money, after a deductible is paid, he said, adding that he did not know how much the deductible is.

At the news conference, Ecker outlined changes the school system will make to prevent this from recurring: performing random audits at schools, hiring additional staff for fiscal 2008 and revising control procedures.

For example, each school will begin using the same financial software, and assign ownership to all student group accounts, Ecker said. Those changes will take place immediately.

School officials called Bowers’ alleged scheme of embezzling money “intricate.“ She kept two sets of books and different receipts on transactions, Martin explained: One set showed the actual amounts in the accounts, while another showed the deposited amounts. For example, if a student group gave her $4,000 to deposit in an account, she would write a receipt in that amount, but would deposit only $2,000, Parrish said .

If a group needed to buy something that cost more than was in the account, Bowers would move money between the accounts, Martin said.

The Bowers investigation is the second of its kind in the county in the past two years. In 2005, Linda Sprinkle, a secretary at Shiloh Middle School in Hampstead, was accused of stealing about $20,000 in funds raised for victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and other student accounts. Her trial is slated for December, said Melissa Hockensmith, the prosecutor handling both cases.