PTO says $23,000 missing from bank account

More than $23,000 is missing from the bank account of the Ramsey Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization, according to a police report filed Tuesday.

Four Ramsey mothers who serve on the PTO board went to police Tuesday after an audit of the PTO’s financial records. No charges have been filed, but the women told police they suspected a former board member who was authorized to sign checks on the account.

Cathy Roop, co-president of the Ramsey PTO, declined to comment Wednesday.

“I know exactly what happened, but I’m not going to tell you,” Roop said. She also declined to say what the PTO’s budget was or how much money the group raised during its last fundraiser.

Principal Ann Walker and Steve Briggs, business manager for the Coeur d’Alene School District, declined to comment on the alleged theft because the matter is under investigation.

Briggs said the district has no oversight or authority concerning the PTO.

“They are a separate entity,” Briggs said. “We are certainly aware there is an issue there, but we don’t have any records of the audit.”

The PTO board members told police the money was last accounted for Sept. 1, 2003, and discovered missing Sept. 12, 2005. They said they decided to have the books audited.

According to police reports, the women said that all checks written on the PTO account require two signatures, and at the time of the alleged theft, one of the required signatures was of the woman who board members suspect in the crime.

They told police that the woman had apologized in the past for the “books being disorganized.”

The police report said the women only filed the report with police “after much thought and consideration.”