Full restitution has been paid to the Oxford school district by former Crossroads School Principal Shelly Chapman, according to Superintendent Tim Throne.
Chapman, who was an employee of Oxford Community Schools, resigned Jan. 29 after being confronted about using the district’s credit card to make approximately $3,400 in personal purchases, according to school officials.
Throne is pleased with how the situation was handled.
‘Do we need to make sure that we constantly educate our staff and administrators on what our polices are and make sure we go back and reiterate that education piece? Yeah, maybe we need to continue to do that,? he said. ‘But I would say strictly from a financial, accounting, audit perspective, the processes, the forms, the things we have in place, it worked. I don’t know if there is really much we can do on that end (to make it better.)?
Keeping a close eye on the finances, including how and where taxpayer money is being spent, is a part of creating a culture of accountability.
‘We have high standards for our students, our staff, all of our employees, myself included,? Throne said. ‘Being responsible, we (have) got to hold ourselves accountable and that’s exactly what we did.?
Marketing and Communications Director Matt Johnson explained the existing policies are a ‘plan to keep people on a path.?
‘It doesn’t matter how deep or well grooved the path is or how good the policy is, if somebody wants to leave the path, they will, so the thing that . . . our administrators who have access to credit cards (need) to understand (is) that those stones do get turned over,? he added. ‘The policy is the policy to help us find what’s under those stones. This is a case where it’s (unfortunate) that the decision was made to leave the path.?
For those who may wonder why the district didn’t seek criminal charges against Chapman, Throne said the district ‘wanted to do what was best for the district and what was best for the employee.?
‘In this situation, and after obviously discussing the (details) with our attorney, we felt that the quickest, most cost-effective way to get our district made whole again was to work something out with the employee and that’s what we did,? he added. ‘Could we have gotten lawyers involved? Yeah, we could have, but as soon as I start doing that, guess what? While I may get the full restitution, we also just (expended) money in lawyer fees.?
Throne also addressed the topic of transparency. He noted he received e-mails from the public asking questions about the credit card misuse prior to the story going public, but he declined to answer in detail due to the matter still being worked out between the district and Chapman.
‘While I wholeheartedly believe in transparency, transparency doesn’t mean that we’re not professional and that we don’t do things in the best interest of the district as a whole. When you’re in the middle of a process, many times that’s not the appropriate time to (go) public with what’s going on in that process,? Throne said. ‘It doesn’t mean that you’re not dealing with it or that you don’t know about it. It means when everything is all said and done you say, ‘Okay, here it is.??
‘If at anytime someone brings to light something that we don’t know about, I’ll give them kudos in the paper,? he added. ‘I will publicly thank them for letting us know about something, but this is not one of those cases.
Overall, Throne is glad about the way things worked out.
‘Does it make me feel good anytime our students or our employees make mistakes or mess up? No, that’s never a good feeling,? he said. ‘But I do feel good in that we caught (the credit card misuse) in a timely manner and that it was appropriately dealt with, that the district was made whole and that we worked it out with the employee in the best interest of the district and the employee involved.?