STILLWATER – A former Stillwater Public Schools employee accused of embezzling more than $200,000 has been bound over for trial in Payne County District Court.
Stacy Kay Hampton is scheduled to return to the county courthouse here on March 22 for a pretrial conference.
Hampton, 53, of Ripley, is charged with embezzling funds from the school nutrition services program.
She “took money specifically earmarked to feed school kids,” State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd said.
Hampton “was in charge of collecting money from school cafeterias and making the deposits.” An investigative audit performed by the SA&I staff revealed the theft of $216,196 of public funds over a seven- year period: Fiscal Years 2013-19. “This employee was literally taking food out of the mouths of children,” Byrd said.
Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas requested the audit after being alerted by the chief financial officer for Stillwater Public Schools, who was conducting an internal investigation of Hampton’s work hours and discovered the discrepancy, court records indicate.
Hampton was an administrative assistant for the school nutrition program for more than 10 years.
Austin Thomas filed the felony embezzlement charge on April 29, 2022. Hampton’s bond was set at $75,000.
The SA&I investigation revealed what it called “a significantly inadequate segregation of duties related to the (school nutrition services’) administrative assistant’s duties.”
“One common theme with … most of our special audits of smaller towns and school districts is a lack of … oversight and a lack of internal controls,” Mick Dodson, compliance director with the state auditor’s office, told Southwest Ledger earlier this year.
Another common problem is that “they require relatively low bond amounts for their … officials who handle money,” Dodson said. As a result, when those officials embezzle money, the school or town “ultimately receives little restitution and/or recovery.”
Stillwater school district’s total loss was calculated to be $242,292, which included the theft of $216,196 plus $26,095 for the forensic audit performed by the State Auditor’s office, but doesn’t include legal fees. The district received a $10,000 payment from the Oklahoma State Insurance Group.