Hartford school principal, former administrative assistant at center of student activity fund scandal, source says

A former administrative assistant at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy has been identified by a city source as the person under fire for alleged mismanagement of a student activity fund and her boss, principal Julie Goldstein as the one on the hot seat for allegedly not adequately overseeing the fund.

The source said the administrative assistant who ran the fund daily resigned in early January under pressure from school officials as a result of an audit.

Goldstein, who was supposed to be overseeing the fund’s management is on family leave, also under pressure from school officials, the source said. The source within the city said Goldstein was told by officials to take the voluntary leave.

Hartford Public Schools spokesman Jesse Sugarman confirmed last week the “individuals” who ran the fund are, “no longer active employees with Hartford Public Schools,” but he declined to give names or other details. Sugarman said Friday that Richard Quinn is now the acting principal at Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy. Goldstein remains on the school’s website as the named principal.

This week, when told the Courant had obtained the names of the employees, the Hartford Public Schools released an updated statement through Sugarman that for the first time addressed the depth of their concern.

“While we continue to respect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals involved in the SAF (Student Activity Fund) matter, please know that HPS takes these matters very seriously,” the statement said.

The statement went on to say, “The district acted swiftly in response to this incident and after an exhaustive and comprehensive review of the situation concluded that action was required to both control the funds intended for student activities and to ensure accountability where appropriate and consistent with due process.”

For Goldstein’s part, the audit concluded that the school’s principal “has not provided adequate attention to the school’s financial processes to establish and implement effective financial controls,” and that “substantial financial risks currently exist at HMTCA in the absence of an effective management oversight.”

Neither woman could be reached for comment.

The police department doesn’t have an open investigation into the case.

The audit by school officials into the alleged mismanaged funds at the school was done in 2022 by the Hartford Public Schools finance department.

The audit cites possible funds missing, poor bookkeeping and concludes the school’s fund allegedly was mismanaged overall, including by using money from the fund to pay for a teachers’ retirement party.

The audit doesn’t name the person who allegedly mismanaging the money intended to pay for extracurricular and other student enrichment activities or the supervisor who should have been overseeing the fund by Board of Education rules.

The fund is comprised of money raised and collected by students through fundraising activities, donations, class dues, athletics, yearbooks, field trips and activity clubs, the audit states.

The audit was done in response to alleged irregularities found in a cursory review of the finances, a source said.

The audit has been referred to the city’s Internal Audit Commission, an autonomous body set up by a city charter. A spokesperson for the commission could not be reached for comment, but the source said that body is slated to address the audit at an upcoming meeting and could recommend a further investigation. Members of the Internal Audit Commission were involved in the audit as they conducted interviews.

Among the audit findings were that the student activity fund administrator allegedly used the fund to pay for at least part of a retirement party for three teachers at a local cafe and on at least eight occasions allegedly signed the signature of the principal and assistant principal on checks that required the administrators to sign.

The student activity fund administrator’s conduct allegedly, “rises to the level of gross negligence of (their) responsibilities,” the audit’s conclusion states.

In addition to interviews, the financial team analyzed bank statements, receipts, signatures, approvals, invoices and more.

Among the findings of the audit were:

• The fund had a $42,000 deficit, according to bank statements.

• There was no confirmation of where large sums of money deposited in 2023 from the 2021-2022 fiscal year were held during that gap.

• During a visit by the financial staff, the student activity fund safe was inspected and checks and cash totaling $1,500 was discovered that had not been deposited at the bank or recorded in the books.

• Various transactions recorded were deleted.

• There were missing receipts for cash collected.

• Deposited transactions were removed from the register.

• The final fiscal year statement from Bank of America showed an account balance of about $31,000, meaning the value of the account declined over the course of the year.

A test of the cash disbursement process allegedly showed the fund money was being misused for various activities such as for staff appreciation incentives and a retirement party against the student activity fund policy.

Checks written for teacher events were allegedly disguised as student events in record-keeping, the audit says. Transactions for the retirement party costing $4,260 were allegedly labeled: “Senior outing class of 2022.”

The signatures on the checks to a café where the retirement party was held were alleged to be those of the school’s principal and assistant principal, but when shown the checks as part of the audit, neither recognized their signatures, the document says.