Selma school bookkeeper charged in theft case
Selma school bookkeeper charged in theft case By Bryan Henry | April 7, 2021 at 5:28 PM CDT - Updated April 7 at 6:22 PM
SELMA, Ala. (WSFA) - A Selma school bookkeeper is in trouble with law. It involves thousands of dollars in missing funds and a confession but no clear motive behind it all.
Meadowview Christian School in Selma employed Jennifer Robinson as its bookkeeper. The school recently wanted to make a purchase but realized the money wasn’t there.
“And then for somebody that you trust with your money to steal from their children. And my hat’s off to the administrators at the school for finding this,” said Dallas County Sheriff Mike Granthum.
Six former Alabama educators are facing dozens of conspiracy, identity theft and fraud charges in a wide-reaching federal probe into enrollment practices at virtual schools in the state.
Federal investigators say three former north Alabama educators conspired to fraudulently inflate enrollment data at virtual schools within their districts, triggering larger reimbursements from state education funds they then personally skimmed off.
Former Athens City Schools (ACS) Superintendent Trey Holladay and former Limestone County Superintendent Tom Sisk were both indicted, along with Deborah Irby Holladay, Trey Holladay s wife and a retired Athens teacher.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said the trio padded virtual school enrollment numbers with student data drawn from private schools in the Black Belt. The administrators claimed the students were receiving virtual instruction while remaining enrolled in their home schools and districts.