The former treasurer of a magnet school in West Palm Beach is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the school, according to school police, but she will not face criminal charges.
School district police believe Cathleen Spring, 52, somehow stole $66,000 from Bak Middle School of the Arts.
“That makes me pretty angry and I hope that they prosecute her to the fullest of the law,” said dad Greg Byer, who we met picking up his daughter Kiana, a 7th grader at Bak Middle School.
“We need things at school and it's hard to get them,” said Kiana.
Kiana is part of the theater program, one of the departments that could have benefited from the extra money.
“For our sets, we need money to build the sets, we need money for costumes and it's hard to do it when we don't have enough,” explained Kiana.
According to a report released last week by the school board's inspector general, between 2012 and 2015 Spring removed more than 100 deposits from the school's safe that came from fundraisers. District detectives also allege Spring stole cash from the school, used her school-issued credit card to order two pairs of Ugg boots worth $320 and deposited cash into her family’s bank account.
But despite evidence presented by district officials, the State Attorney's Office refused to prosecute.
A letter from the SAO cites "…. a lack of any direct evidence to support this conclusion,…", including lapses in time from when the thefts were reported and no video surveillance proving Spring took the money.
Tanya Kugel is also a Bak Middle School parent and she says she's worked with Spring to book plane tickets and hotels for students.
“She just seemed very honest and she always made sure everything was done the right way,” said Kugel.
When the investigation started in 2015, the district removed Spring from the school. She later resigned.
Records show Spring earned $25,600 as school treasurer.
