(The Center Square)–Taxpayers in rural Arizona have taken yet another hit due to alleged financial abuse of public funds. 

Hyder Elementary School District’s former superintendent secretary, Nubia Gonzalez, faced a criminal indictment for theft, forgery, and misuse of public monies for allegedly embezzling $2,486 months after she was fired. District employees caught the transaction and reported it to authorities.

That check was not made until December 2020, but in 2018, 15 “questionable checks” totaling $2,600 were deposited into Gonzalez’s own account. According to the report, her checking accounts were used as a go-between for employees to avoid having to drive all the way to the nearest bank in the “secluded community.” 

“District officials did not notice there was no cash deposited in exchange for these 15 checks because no one reconciled the checks to the account statements,” the report states, adding the culprit for those funds is “unknown.”

The indictment comes after Gonzalez was already facing charges for allegedly stealing roughly $36,000 from a Scottsdale middle school’s APT group this summer, according to 12 News in August. She was the group’s treasurer. 

“Since our investigation began, District officials reported to us that they canceled all Sam’s Club credit cards, closed the unauthorized checking account used for USPS payments, and now deposit those monies in the District’s Civic Center Fund with the County Treasurer,” the report stated. 

“They further reported the implementation of student activity fund check disbursement controls that include storing the check stock in a locked safe with 2 authorized keyholders, requiring independently approved check request forms, reviewing supporting documentation prior to signing checks, prohibiting signing blank checks, and performing monthly reconciliations that compare bank statement transactions to District accounting records with 3 levels of review,” it continued.

However, the Auditor General also recommended that the district have improved training and “announcement reviews” of check security processes. 

In addition to the over $5,000 in allegedly stolen and missing funds from the rural district, 40 “unauthorized purchases” were made on the district’s Sam’s Club card from June 2019 to August 2020—another $7,138 loss. However, those purchases were not related to anybody in particular. 

Story by Cameron Arcand