The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is seeking charges against a 40-year-old Festus woman in connection with the theft of money from student lunch accounts at Athena Elementary in the De Soto School District.
Grant Bissell, spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said misdemeanor stealing charges are being sough against the woman through the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
During the July 18 De Soto Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Josh Isaacson said the Daniel Jones & Associates accounting firm completed an audit into the matter and found that “under $200” had been stolen.
On April 4, two district employees discovered the missing money and reported it to district administration. Then, the school board voted April 11 to authorize the forensic audit.
Isaacson said the investigation is focused on a former employee of Chartwells, the company the district formerly contracted with to run its food service program.
Chartwells has repaid the missing money from the student lunch accounts, Isaacson said.
“They also are paying for the Daniel Jones audit,” he added.
Isaacson said no money was found missing from lunch accounts at any of the district’s other schools.
Isaacson said a company named SFE will be the district’s food service provider next school year, but the change was made through a competitive bidding process, not because of the missing funds.
He said July 18 that the district is taking steps aimed at preventing any lunch money thefts in the future, such as developing a numbering system for lunch money envelopes to better account for them.