Esperanza High School in Anaheim has recovered more than $1.5 million stolen by a former finance clerk, district officials said, and the campus plans to put that money into programs, buildings and ticket reductions.
Last year Cynthia Marie Campbell, 65, of Midway City was sentenced to 14 years in state prison for embezzling more than $700,000, a figured determined by an audit, from the school’s Associated Student Body. Authorities said she’d been taking money for years, including making out checks apparently to her husband and dead mother.
Discrepancies were uncovered by a new finance clerk after Campbell retired in 2017. A later audit determined the actual amount was $1.5 milllion, a district official said.
“The embezzled funds were originally raised by students for various ASB-related activities and projects over a number of years,” district spokeswoman Alyssa Griffiths said in an email.
After the theft, the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District filed an insurance claim to compensate the high school for its loss and was reimbursed, she said.
The district’s board, ASB and school administrators created a spending plan for the money that includes funds for clubs, athletic programs, discounts for event tickets and upgrades to the gym, the library and the theater.
“Although this situation began as something entirely unfortunate, I am confident the outcome will have a long-lasting, positive impact on our students and entire school community at Esperanza High School,” Principal Gina Aguilar said in an email.
Campbell, the former clerk, had been working in the district since February 1998. In March 2020, she pleaded guilty to 222 felony counts of misappropriation or embezzlement of monies by a public officer with sentencing-enhancement allegations of aggravated white-collar crime exceeding $500,000.
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