Woman charged for embezzling funds from Kelowna, B.C. elementary school PAC – Okanagan
A court docket date has been set for a girl accused of stealing hundreds of {dollars} from a dad or mum advisory council for a Kelowna, B.C., elementary college.
Andrea Marie Blanchard is going through fees of fraud, theft over $5,000, forgery, utilizing a solid doc and altering paperwork to defraud. The costs stem from January 2016 to January 2018.
The lacking cash, believed to be round $25,000, was found in 2019 by members of the dad or mum advisory council (PAC) for South Rutland Elementary.
The court docket date is Dec. 16, 2021, on the Kelowna Regulation Courts. The PAC instructed World Information that Blanchard, a former PAC treasurer from 2014-18, has agreed to pay again round $26,000.
In keeping with the PAC, the embezzlement proved pricey, as the varsity went a full yr with out PAC-funded objects similar to sizzling lunches. Notably, funding for varsity journeys was simply given the inexperienced gentle this yr.
“As PAC president after we found the misappropriation, we had extraordinarily low financial institution balances,” Toni Koryakuss, present PAC vice-president, instructed World Information.
“At the moment, we weren’t capable of supply any form of subject journeys, in-school provides that will assist out our academics’ want lists. We weren’t capable of function sizzling lunches at the moment, or something to do with monetary help for our faculty.”
Two years on, Koryakuss says the PAC has financially recovered.
“We wish to put out a giant thanks to our group and our native companies and households for sponsoring our PAC,” mentioned Koryakuss.
Due to that help, mentioned Koryakuss, the PAC was capable of not solely pay bookkeeping charges to rectify their accounts, but additionally fundraise and acquire again a lot of the cash that had been misappropriated.
Additional, Koryakuss mentioned that’s allowed the PAC to fund a playground enhancement value $16,000.
“We’ve slowly been capable of begin supporting our faculty once more after that first yr,” mentioned Koryakuss. “Final yr, we did implement sizzling lunches, and we did break floor for our playground enhancement this summer time.
“There’s been numerous volunteer hours put into not solely the investigation, however reraising the cash. And with out our group help, we’d not capable of be the place we’re at the moment.”
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