A former Greenwood Community Middle School employee has been charged with stealing more than $58,000 from the school district.
Kellie Cline, 35, Greenwood, was one of 15 people charged in a federal and state corruption investigation, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler announced Thursday. According to the charges, Cline allegedly stole the money through her role as the extracurricular activity treasurer for the middle school.
The investigation report alleges that from 2014 to 2018, she had stolen $58,535.56 from fees collected for athletics, textbook rentals and other extracurricular activities.
According to a statement from Greenwood Superintendent Kent DeKoninck Thursday, Cline was fired from the school in April of this year after an audit revealed the missing money.
"As we have done from the beginning of the investigation, we are cooperating with law enforcement and will be requesting full restitution," the statement said. The school district will not be making any further comments due to it being a law enforcement issue, the statement said.
Cline was charged as part of Operation Public Accountability, a wide-scale corruption investigation among the Indiana State Board of Accounts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, Indiana State Police, county sheriffs and state and local prosecutors.
In total, the State Board of Accounts is demanding more than $1 million from those charged in the investigation, based on the misappropriations identified in these cases.
“Public officials work for the people, not the other way around,” U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler said Thursday. "All citizens deserve better from their public officials and this office intends to hold them accountable."
Cline started working as the extracurricular activities treasurer at the middle school in 2013. Her job required her to collect payments, issue receipts, prepare deposit slips, deposit payments and record the receipts in the school’s accounting records.
According to a special investigation report by the state board of accounts, Cline allegedly started stealing money in 2014.
Between 2015 and 2018, Cline reportedly stole $36,459.57 from accounts such as money taken at the gate of sporting events, concessions and other athletic activities, according to the investigation report.
The investigation also found that Cline had taken $11,591.87 from textbook rental fees collected between July 1, 2014 and her termination. An additional $10,484.12 was missing from other extracurricular accounts between 2015 and 2018, the report said.
Those discrepancies were discovered after Greenwood started a voluntary internal audit of extracurricular accounts in 2017, the school corporation’s statement said.
Once Greenwood officials learned of the discrepancy, Cline was placed on leave and the school district immediately reported it to the state board of accounts, the school district’s statement said.
When the extent of the missing money was verified, Cline was fired on April 2, the school’s statement said. School officials also contacted Greenwood Police regarding the incident.
The state board of accounts completed their investigation on Sept. 10, and on Sept. 19, met with Greenwood officials, including DeKoninck, Assistant Superintendent Todd Pritchett, Greenwood Middle School Principal Chris Sutton and school district Treasurer Stephanie Porter.
As part of the investigation report, the board of accounts concluded that weaknesses within the school district’s accounting processes contributed to Cline’s failure to deposit all payments.
"There was not effective oversight conducted in relation to the (extracurricular account) collections and records," the investigation report said.
As part of the charges, Cline will have to reimburse a total of $80,961.32. That includes the $58,535.56 taken from the school district as well as $22,425.76 for the cost of the special investigation by the state board of accounts.
Cline will face charges for the alleged crimes in federal court, Minkler said.
