NEW YORK (AP) – Flights aboard the Concorde for vacations in England. Mortgage payments for homes in Florida, the Hamptons and Pennsylvania. More than $1 million in ATM cash advances. Even dry cleaning and cable TV.

A small group of public school employees in Roslyn, an affluent Long Island community, pilfered $11.2 million for personal benefit since 1996, a state audit has found.

State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi told The Associated Press Wednesday he had never before seen such a “systematic misappropriation of taxpayer money” by school officials.

“Certain senior officials with the keys to the cash register went on a spending spree of massive proportions,” Hevesi said. “The variety of methods used was breathtaking.”

Three former Roslyn officials, including the superintendent of schools, were arrested last year and are awaiting criminal trials. Hevesi has identified an additional 26 people who benefited from school funds – including friends and family members of school officials – and referred the case to the Nassau County district attorney for possible prosecution.

The schools in Roslyn, 20 miles from Manhattan, are among the best in the state. The district sends 95 percent of its high school graduates to college. Foreign language education begins for all students in kindergarten, and SAT scores rate among the best in the nation.

Hevesi’s office began his probe following the arrests last spring of former Superintendent Frank Tassone and two others.

Auditors went back eight years, reviewing 57,000 checks and tens of thousands of computer records, finding that some senior employees had the district pay their personal credit card bills, mortgages on luxury homes, personal automobiles, vacations and more.

“That means Roslyn taxpayers paid more than they should have and Roslyn students and teachers were shortchanged. The trust that is essential for school districts to do their job has been shattered,” Hevesi said.

In addition to Tassone, the other officials charged with multiple felonies are former assistant superintendent for business Pamela Gluckin and former clerk Deborah Rigano, who is Gluckin’s niece. Attorneys for Tassone and Gluckin did not immediately return telephone calls for comment and Rigano’s attorney declined to comment.

Auditors found Gluckin personally benefited by at least $4,634,012. Tassone’s personal gain was at least $2,407,965; Rigano’s was at least $334,452. Another $1,580,274 was not traceable to a specific individual, Hevesi said, and 26 others, including relatives and friends of Tassone, Gluckin and Rigano, received $2,288,462.

Among other things, the audit found:

• $1,137,939 was used to make payments on private mortgages and loans.

• $609,000 was paid to Home Depot for items not used in the district.

• $249,883 was spent on computers and other electronic equipment delivered to individuals and locations outside the district.

• $206,798 was spent on automobiles, including for a BMW and a Jaguar.

• $133,619 was spent on travel to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Manhattan, New Orleans, and Bermuda, as well as trips to London on the Concorde for Tassone.

Other payments allegedly benefiting Tassone included dry cleaning, cable service, a fitness club, Christmas cards, and personal phone lines. Gluckin allegedly used school funds to pay for water service to her home and a pool cleaner. Rigano allegedly bought a Rolex watch and used school funds to pay for her dry cleaning and hair and nail salons appointments.

Hevesi said the auditors found a breakdown of internal auditing controls, allegedly overridden by Tassone and Gluckin, and noted the district’s independent auditor, which has since gone out of business, “had conflicts of interest and performed work that was so flawed and so far below professional standards that it failed to identify the millions that were stolen.”

Hevesi added the scandal has not hurt the quality of instruction.

“The education provided by the Roslyn School District was and remains impressive,” Hevesi said, noting the new leadership of the school district has promised to implement the audit’s recommendations and to provide updates every three months.

Roslyn’s new superintendent of schools, David J. Helme, called Hevesi’s audit “a dramatic and an infuriating story about what can happen when a few people in high places collude to defraud others.”

He added that since last fall the district has “struggled to rebuild its financial credibility and return its business operations to the highest level of honesty and integrity.”

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