MEXICO – Security practices have been tightened at Mountain Valley Middle School since $14,000 in cash and checks were taken sometime early last month.
SAD 43 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said Monday that checks and cash will now have to be deposited within 24 hours, and only two people will have access to the vault. The vault will be kept closed.
In the past, the vault was usually opened in the morning and closed at the end of the school day because student records, along with money and checks, are stored in the vault, he said.
About $4,000 in cash and $10,000 in checks were taken from the locked file cabinet inside the vault. Entry was not forced.
The cash and checks were in three money bags. Of the $4,000 cash, about $125 was the result of a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims. The remaining cash and checks were from student fees, raffles, a sixth-grade dance, and other monies slated for the student activities’ fund, Hodgkin said.
Neither the Mexico police nor the school department has any leads in the theft, he said.
Hodgkin said if the school receives any tips, they are passed on to the Mexico Police Department and if the police receive any tips, they are passed on to the school.
Police Chief Jim Theriault said last week that he and officer Jeff Stoddard had interviewed eight staff members in connection with the case. He also had planned to ask a couple of the members of the Rumford Police Department to conduct interviews.
“There has never been that much money in the vault,” Hodgkin said. “It’s likely to be a staff member. It’s discouraging and disheartening.”
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