Local
Deputies Say PTA Treasurer Embezzled from Fresno School’s Account
A 30-year-old Fresno woman was charged with embezzlement Wednesday after Fresno County sheriff’s detectives said she stole $27,000 from a Sanger Unified school’s Parent-Teacher Association account.
Sandy Rojas
The sheriff’s office reported that Sandy Rojas had served as treasurer of Lone Star Elementary School’s PTA since 2017.
Deputies learned from staff at the school in early May of the missing money, which came from parents, students and teachers. The money had been donated to provide for the children at Lone Star, which is at 2617 S. Fowler Ave. in Fresno.
The sheriff’s office said Rojas spent the money on personal expenses.
After she was booked on a felony charge of embezzlement, Rojas was released hours later on the state’s Emergency Zero Dollar Bail rule. She is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 6.
Andyfab
June 10, 2020 at 2:27 am
That sounds crazy! Doesn’t the Lone Star P.T.A. have any safeguards in place to guard against improper e3xtraction of funds from the bank account? I was Treasury Secretary of my daughter’s elementary school and you could not deposit or take out money without there being 2 signatures on the deposit slip. Plus our P.T.A. had our forms that would show the signatures of the people who counted the money prior to depositing it into the bank. Only certain members of the P.T.A. Board could withdraw money and it had to be specifically related to the budget that the P.T.A. membership had established the prior year. As the Treasury Secretary, I had to keep the books and made sure that all deposits and withdrawals balanced. Our P.T.A. had a computer that housed our accounting computer program and the password to the computer was known only to the President, Treasurer and Treasury Secretary. I mean we had safeguards up the wazoo. Somebody needs to go have a chat with this P.T.A. and give them some recommendations to keep this from happening again.