School Official Pleads Guilty In Funding Theft

Fri., Oct. 13, 1995

Associated Press

A former Peninsula School District official has pleaded guilty to padding bus ridership records to boost the amount of state money the district received.

Roger B. Anderson, the district’s former transportation director, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail, which he was allowed to convert to 240 hours of community service.

He pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to one count of first-degree theft and five counts of filing false reports with the state.

Prosecutors said Anderson had bus drivers write their ridership figures in pencil, then he would inflate the numbers.

The state uses the numbers to calculate how much school districts should be reimbursed for transportation costs.

Prosecutors have said the district may have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeserved funds. Anderson reportedly has said he brought in an extra $50,000.

Anderson could have been sentenced to 14 to 18 months in prison, but he was given a more lenient sentence because he had no prior felony convictions and did not gain from his actions, said deputy prosecutor April McComb.

Anderson, 64, retired in September 1994.

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