Dist. 300 gets records to find missing $100,000

MidAmerica Bank has turned over documents to Community Unit District 300 to help the district determine if more than $100,000 was stolen from Dundee-Crown High School's student activity fund, district officials said.

An attorney for District 300 received the documents Wednesday, five days after MidAmerica missed a self-imposed deadline to turn over the records, officials said.

"Thank God. I've been trying for over two years to get those documents," said Cheryl Crates, District 300's chief financial officer. "It's perfect."

If District 300 has received all the requested documents, the district's investigation of the bank activity could be completed within two weeks, Crates said.

"We're not sure they're all there because the auditor has to review what they sent," Crates said.

MidAmerica Bank said the records are complete.

"We are working with them. We have provided all the documents," bank spokesman Jim Eckel said.

The district will turn over the records to Libertyville-based John Peters and Associates, which is conducting a forensic audit to determine whether the $100,000 is missing or was stolen.

The records include hundreds of checks deposited into 25 Dundee-Crown subaccounts from April 2005 to February 2006.

District 300 launched the audit and contacted Carpentersville police in July 2006, more than two years after officials first learned of issues with the account.

The results of the audit are a critical part of the criminal investigation, police said.

"That would tell us definitively that cash was taken" and help identify possible suspects, Carpentersville police spokesman Cmdr. Michael Kilbourne said.

But the audit will not be complete until District 300 receives documents it has requested from the secretary who oversaw the student activity fund.

District 300 filed a petition July 27 seeking a court order to get the those documents.

In the petition, the district seeks the secretary's deposit slips, canceled checks, bank statements and federal income tax returns during the time she supervised the account.

A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Nov. 13.

On April 28, 2006, the secretary overstated the balance in the student activity fund by $100,672.54, prompting school officials to assign the woman to a different position, police records show.

The woman resigned May 7, 2006, citing medical reasons, Crates said.