Nearly $50,000 went missing from a Natomas school PTA. Police are investigating

Three years after $47,000 of Parent Teacher Association funds went missing at a Natomas elementary school, the Natomas Unified School District still wants answers.

The district filed a police report Friday with the Sacramento Police Department and asked for charges to be filed — a year-and-a-half after filing its first police report about the missing funds at Natomas Park Elementary School and naming a parent as a possible suspect. But district officials said there was no follow-up to that initial filing.

“It is in the best interest of the Natomas Park Elementary students that the $47,000 be recovered (if possible) and the person(s) held accountable,” read a statement from the district. “It is also important to learn how this amount of money was lost to prevent or limit future occurrences.“

District officials said it is unclear when exactly the money went missing.

The Sacramento Police Department confirmed that a police report was filed about the missing funds.

“Detectives are conducting a follow-up on this report and the investigation is active,” read a statement from the police department to The Sacramento Bee.

Natomas Unified officials said they reached out to the Third District PTA, which serves the greater Sacramento region, and the California State PTA, but were provided very little information.

“It’s mind boggling,” said Superintendent Chris Evans. “That’s a lot of money.”

The Bee reached out to both the Third District PTA, and did not receive responses as of noon Tuesday.

Sherri Griffith, executive director of the California State PTA, said that while she doesn’t know about the Natomas Park Elementary case, any criminal case would not reach the state PTA. If an insurance claim was filed, the state PTA would be notified, she said.

“Our expectation is that local PTA officers are fully cooperating with investigators,” Griffith said.

According to the Natomas Park Elementary PTA Facebook page, the Third District PTA shut down the school’s chapter in November 2020. The elementary school’s bank account was closed the following month.

“We want our families to understand that when they engage in activities, there is district support. If there is potential malfeasance, we are there to address it,” Evans said.

School activities such as ice cream socials, winter dances, family reading night and carnivals are all PTA-sponsored events that can no longer take place with the chapter closure.

Evans said that some Natomas Park Elementary parents expressed interest in creating a new chapter, but district officials want to first identify what caused the financial issues.

“This was not the outcome the 2019-2020 board members wanted,” read a statement on the organization’s Facebook page. “We were forced to put the NPE PTA on hold this school year while 3rd district PTA, who oversees our PTA program as a part of the national PTA organization, tried to help bring resolution to financial issues from two-three years ago and to work with the school’s administration. We have been unsuccessful in both. So it was decided that the NPE PTA be shut down as of November 1st.”

In a comment following the PTA’s post, a page manager stated that there was “substantial financial mismanagement” but that “none of the 2019-2020 board members were involved.”

The PTA said it attempted to resolve the issues, but “the school’s administration would not cooperate with 3rd District PTA to help us resolve the financial issues.”

The district denied that claim, stating the site administrator is the one who asked the school district for assistance with the matter.

“Hopefully, there are good Samaritans out there that can report things confidentially, so we can find out what happened either intentionally or because of bad management,” Evans said. “We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 12:29 PM.