Kay Marcelle, 60, Duxbury, former technology specialist at Waitsfield Elementary School, pleaded not guilty on December 4, 2014, in Washington County criminal court to one count of felony embezzlement. She faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $500 fine if convicted. Marcelle had been the school's technology integrationist until retiring in 2012.
According to the Vermont State Police affidavit, Brigid Scheffert of Washington West Supervisory Union contacted police in August 2013 to report documents that showed Marcelle had taken money from the Waitsfield Education Fund. Marcelle created the fund in 1999 to help the school purchase technology equipment.
In 2009, when Kaiya Korb became the school's principal, she began asking questions about the fund. According to police affidavits Korb didn't feel the fund was meeting the accounting standards that it should have been using.
Scheffert told police that another school checked with People's United Bank about the fund and discovered that Marcelle had closed the account in June 2012. Police say the account's balance at that time was $9,042.39.
According to a Rutland Herald report, there was also an American Express credit card connected to the fund and Scheffert told police the credit card statements weren't adding up for what was legitimately purchased for the school. She told police Marcelle had purchased computers from Small Dog Electronics and Apple that may have been for Marcelle's personal use.
Scheffert also told police that the school's previous principal, Richard Schattman, had been the one to authorize the majority of the reimbursements for the fund and that he and Marcelle had started an intimate relationship while they both worked at the school. Police say there was a question about whether the authorizations that Schattman had given were legitimate.
Police also contacted former principal Carol Hosford, who was the principal at the school until 2004 and was there when the fund was created. Hosford told police the fund had its tax-exempt status from the IRS revoked because Marcelle had not submitted any reports to the IRS on the fund.
Police said they then went to Marcelle's home in Duxbury, where they met her and Schattman packing for a two-year sailing trip on the Atlantic Ocean. When asked about the fund, Marcelle told police it was started with a $40,000 contribution from the Freeman Foundation. She told police that the fund was not active for about 10 years, because there had not been any significant contributions to it, and it was closed a few years ago, the Rutland Herald reported.
The Herald report notes that police said Marcelle admitted she closed the fund's bank account in 2012 and took out about $8,000. She told police she didn't tell the school about the money and kept it for herself because she believed she deserved it since the fund took up a lot of her time. She also told police she did not claim this money on her tax return, according to the affidavit.
Police discovered that Marcelle had been issued a cashier's check for $7,687.57 and the remaining $1,194.82 from the fund was used to pay off an American Express card, but not the fund's American Express card.
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