“Thousands in receipts questioned in school firing - Charter ousts its superintendent after audit finds discrepancies.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/17/2012
The superintendent of two local charter schools has been fired from his $80,000-a-year job because of questionable receipts for thousands of dollars of purchases that surfaced during a routine audit.The school board in May fired Roger Conners from the Theodore Roosevelt Public Community School in South Fairmount and its sister school, the College Hill Leadership Academy. The receipts only involved the Theodore Roosevelt school...According to the records, school Treasurer Doug Mangen flagged $32,672 in receipts submitted by Superintendent/Principal Roger Conners as “fraudulent”The school did not lose any money because Conners was never reimbursed for the receipts, some of which dated back to 2009. However, under his agreement with the school he would have been reimbursed for them at a later date when the board bought the school...Records showed:• $32,672 in receipts were flagged as “fraudulent.” Some totals had been logged twice or numbers had been changed or added to inflate the total amount. In one case, the total on a receipt for tile, paint and other items was changed from $265 to $1,265. Another receipt for pea gravel was changed from $290 was to $9,290, according to the documents.• Dozens more receipts ranging from food to gas to construction supplies were flagged as “questionable.”• $228 in receipts for beer and cigarette purchases were flagged as “illegal.”Richland Academy put the school on probation April 30 after learning about the problems. As sponsor, Richland is responsible for fiscal oversight and making sure the school complies with the law...
