The Hallie Wells Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) has asked Montgomery County police to investigate an alleged embezzlement of possibly more than $12,000 from its coffers after the group uncovered “serious financial irregularities” this summer, according to PTSA officials.
In a Monday letter to the Clarksburg school’s PTSA community, the PTSA said it found irregularities that appeared to involve financial mismanagement during a routine financial review as board members prepared to transition leadership roles.
Mini Varughese, the organization’s current treasurer, told MoCo360 on Tuesday the PTSA first discovered several irregularities on June 20.
“The past treasurer for the cycle of 2023-2024, he was trying to close out the books and stumbled on a whole bunch of expenses that were odd,” Varughese said. “That’s when he started doing the research and started digging through and discovered all of the discrepancies that were not indicated during the previous transition.”
Varughese said only one person was suspected of embezzlement. According to the letter sent to the community, the suspected individual is no longer affiliated with the PTSA or the middle school and no current members had engaged in inappropriate activity.
County police did not immediately confirm Tuesday that the alleged embezzlement was under investigation.
After researching the irregularities, Varughese said the PTSA sought guidance from the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA), which advised the group to notify police and its insurance carrier. On July 3, the PTSA filed a report with county police and the PTSA’s insurance company, AIM Association Insurance, the letter stated.
In addition to notifying police, the group notified Montgomery County Public Schools, MCCPTA and the Free State PTA, the state level of the National PTA, according to the community letter.
Since the alleged embezzlement is under investigation, Varughese and MCCPTA President Brigid Howe said they couldn’t share more information, such as who may have been involved or details about the irregular expenses.
However, Howe said the PTSA found discrepancies that had occurred over the last several years. When the PTSA turned over the records to law enforcement, there were “indications” that $12,000 was missing, but the number may increase as the investigations continue, she said.
In the letter, the PTSA said police and the insurance company would investigate the issue.
“We hope this will lead to the recovery of at least some, if not all, of the funds,” the letter states.
This isn’t the first time that local PTAs have dealt with alleged embezzlement. In 2017, a former MCCPTA treasurer was charged with embezzling $39,000 from the group.
According to the community letter, the Hallie Wells PTSA follows PTSA guidance on financial controls, including requiring a PTSA member who did not sign checks to access and review bank statements monthly and two board members to sign all checks.
The PTSA is also adding additional online safeguards following the alleged embezzlement. An additional safety measure that the group is exploring is including multiple members on one email to keep track of the several forms of revenue in the online banking age, Varughese said.
She said maintaining transparency will be key moving forward, although discovering the discrepancies made the PTSA feel “violated.”
“We put all this work into creating this organization, doing all of this work for our school, our students, the parents, the teachers,” Varughese said. “To find out this happened is frankly offensive.”