The school system will likely receive another payment following further investigation by its insurer.
Sam Wall
editor@ourvalley.org
Superintendent Rob Graham was notified Thursday that Radford City Public Schools is receiving a large chunk of the money it lost from an embezzlement scam perpetrated by late Food Service Director Lenora Williams.
Williams died in October 2017 and Graham previously said that it became apparent almost immediately that something was awry.
The school system contacted law enforcement and, following an investigation by Virginia State Police, determined that Williams had embezzled $261,295.24 since 2007.
The investigation became public following a lengthy release in mid-May by Radford Commonwealth Attorney Chris Rehak. Rehak also stated at the time that the “decade-long systematic theft” had “another unfortunate twist,” that the whole thing was preventable.
“On top of negligent record management, lackadaisical security measures and careless accounting efforts, the more troubling part of this saga may rest in a disregarded warning,” he wrote in May.
Graham and other officials denied ever receiving any such warnings about Williams’ misappropriation of funds, but did acknowledge that procedural changes were made following the discovery of Williams’ malfeasance.
Thursday Graham received an email from the Virginia Association of Counties Group Self-Insurance Risk Pool stating that insurance organization had made the decision to reimburse RCPS with $105,149.38.
“This amount includes the checks that total $11,804.84 and the Debit Transactions that are deemed not related to school purchases,” Shane Quinley, a litigation specialist for VACORP, wrote to Graham.
Quinley also wrote that he will be reviewing daily deposit spreadsheets that will likely result in another payment.
Graham had a positive response to VACORP’s decision.
“This is good news for our school system as we are getting back some of the money that was not used appropriately,” Graham wrote. “We still have the possibility of receiving approximately $145,000 and are hopeful we will recover most of that.”
He also noted that, in addition to the safeguards RCPS implemented immediately following the discovery of the crime, that some of the recouped funds will go toward preventing any future theft.
“Right now, we will pay the cafeteria fund back the money it was owed from July, August, September and part of the October embezzlement of 2017. We will then use that money to purchase a more secure school nutrition software program to give us even more internal control of these monies and accounts,” he wrote.
Graham said that since the investigation began, RCPS has taken measures to minimize the risk of embezzlement taking place again.
“The new food service director (Connie Wood), the CFO and myself all sign off on any bills,” he said.
He also said that the school system now has all of its money going directly to the city, except for one account that is used primarily for travel expenses.
Additionally, the system has gotten rid of all but two of its credit cards—one at the high school and one at the school board office. Graham also stressed the point that no child went hungry due to the thefts.
“Ms. Wood has used creative, innovative and best practice ideas and procedures to increase our breakfast/lunch participation rate at each of our schools. I am happy to report for the first time in a very long time, our school nutrition program is, In the Black!” Graham wrote.
Williams began working for the school system in 1988 as a cafeteria worker and worked her way up through multiple positions before being named director of food service in July 2011, the position she held until her death last fall.
