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Taylor: Food Service Worker Misallocated $24,865

School Cafeteria Cashier Accused of Stealing Lunch Money

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Vinton County - Auditor of State Mary Taylor today released the audit of the Vinton County Local School District for fiscal year 2009. The report reveals that a food service worker misallocated more than $24,000 during a three-year period. Schools officials discovered the alleged theft and worked with Taylor’s office to confirm their findings.

“Auditors in my office worked directly with school officials to expose this misallocation of public funds, and I applaud the school district’s administrators for adopting new policies to reduce the risk of future fraud and abuse,” Taylor said.

Former Vinton County Local School District part-time food service worker, Kathy Pyles, worked primarily in the main campus cafeteria and collected lunch money from students. Between April 1, 2006 and April 15, 2009, Pyles entered transactions into the system, collected the money from students, and then selectively deleted some of the transactions. Over the three-year period, she deleted 9,675 transactions totaling $24,865.

School officials discovered an excessive number of transactions deleted by Pyles in comparison to other food service workers. The district conducted an internal investigation and then reported the alleged theft to the Auditor of State’s office, who worked with the school district to confirm their findings.

As a result of the school district’s efforts in conjunction with the Auditor’s investigation, Pyles has been indicted in Vinton County on three counts of theft in office. At the time of the release of the report today, the missing funds had not been repaid to the school district.

A copy of the complete audit is available online.


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The Ohio Auditor of State’s office is a leader in the accounting and auditing field, earning prestigious national honors from the Government Finance Officers Association, the National White Collar Crime Center and the National State Auditor’s Association.

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