Students at a Sacramento high school raised money for a class gift. Then it went missing

Students at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento raised money for a senior gift in 2017, only to have the account depleted two years later then replaced after teachers realized the money was missing.

The incident was first reported in McClatchy’s student newspaper, The Prospector.

Editor-in-chief Olivia Cuevas-Carle, Helen Phun and Kate Tully reported that like many senior classes, the class of 2017 raised money through bake sales and car washes and intended to spend the $11,541 on a “Wall of Fame” exhibit in the high school lobby.

However, the Sacramento City Unified School District vetoed the idea due to architectural concerns because of damage it could cause to marble in the halls. Two teachers, Tim Griffin and Lori Jablonski, served as class sponsors and worked toward helping students identify a new location for the exhibit.

But two years later, nearly $9,000 of the money was pulled from the account. The withdrawals were authorized by McClatchy Principal Peter Lambert and Associated Student Body coordinator Darrell T. Martin, according to the story in The Prospector.

“Sacramento City Unified School District takes these allegations very seriously,” read a statement from the district. “We are currently reviewing the allegations and will take appropriate actions as needed based on the outcome of that review.”

Lambert told The Prospector he did not recall the history of the withdrawal.

Account analysis documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee show more than $8,700 depleted from the Class of 2017 account, much of it paid to a campus security employee for working overtime.

The charges vary in range: $3 for a cleaning crew to about $6,000 for campus employees.

The withdrawals require, but did not have, signatures from a student, as well as one class sponsor.

When Griffin requested a balance of the account at the start of the school year in September and saw that the balance stood at $2,800, Jablonski notified district Deputy Superintendent Lisa Allen, the accounting office and in-house counsel.

One day later, Jablonski said Lambert notified her the withdrawal was a mistake and money was returned, but said he handed her the wrong account document that showed $3,500 was withdrawn from the class of 2018 account and put back in.

“That’s how we discovered that not only was money missing from the class of 2017, but from the class of 2018 as well,” she said. “If he had not handed me the wrong paper, we would not have known that this happened to another class.”

Jablonski said she never heard back from district officials about her concerns.

“The fact that nobody from the district followed up is troubling,” she said.

The money was returned to both accounts in September.

Cuevas-Carle, who began reporting the story at the end of 2019, said she has been fielding reactions from her classmates since her story broke on Jan. 10.

“Some students were really mad and others felt betrayed because they feel like they can’t trust administration,” she said. Cuevas-Carle also said school officials told her they were changing procedures to ensure withdrawals like this won’t happen again.

Some McClatchy teachers and union leaders said they are concerned because money has been unaccounted for before.

In a February letter the Sacramento City Teachers Association sent to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the union expressed concerns about the district’s budget and requested a state investigation. The letter included concerns about “potential misappropriation of money at C.K. McClatchy High School” over missing funds collected for Physical Education clothing.

“There is a ‘no harm, no foul’ sense,” said Jablonski. “If the money is taken, but put back in, then no problem. What happens if you don’t discover it?”

“The way this happened, they had to have been counting on the fact that we would not have discovered it.”

The Class of 2017 plans to continue with their “Wall-of-Fame” exhibit, according to class sponsors, but the alumni will choose another site on campus to put it on display.