Parents with children attending the Harriet Tubman Village school are concerned after thousands of dollars raised by student fundraisers went missing from the College Area school.
Harriet Tubman Village is a small charter school with just 400 students, but, despite its size, its three-person parent-led fundraising team was able to raise $7,689 since June.
Amber Kirkpatrick is the Tiger Tubman Foundation (TTF) vice president and also serves on the parent advisory committee (PAC) at the College Area school.
“Once the school year started, we started fundraising heavily every single Friday,” Kirkpatrick said, “faithfully bringing in over $500 a week from students.”
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The money supports things like classroom programming, field trips and transportation.
Once it came time to start planning for those field trips, though, she said, parents started to get concerned.
“We would never get answers on how much money we really have in the accounts,” Kirkpatrick said.
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Parents became suspicious and decided to check in with the finance office directly, which is how they found out that only $1,043 had been turned in. They filed a police report.
San Diego police said the school is opting to do its own internal investigation and will involve police if it needs to.
“I think this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Kirkpatrick said. “I believe that something else bigger may be going on at this school."
When asked what that could be, Kirkpatrick said, "Embezzlement."
School principal Laura Vivar and school board chair Eric Sams responded to the concerns, writing:
“We are aware of the allegations and are currently conducting an investigation. At this time, no evidence suggests that unlawful conduct occurred. I have no further comment.”
The day after Kirkpatrick reported the funds missing, Vivar sent an email announcing the PAC was being replaced.
“This is a form of retaliation,” Kirkpatrick said. “She's probably upset [about] the funds being reported.”
NBC 7 asked Vivar to respond to these retaliation allegations and has yet to hear back.
Kirkpatrick said TTK provides the school’s only fundraising.
“We don't have any money,” Kirkpatrick said. “I don't know what their plan is or how they're going to fund anything at this point.”
In hindsight, Kirkpatrick wishes she kept closer tabs on the money and urges anyone else in her position to not assume someone’s best intentions.
“Take pictures, videos, whatever you need to do, because you can't trust anyone at this point,” Kirkpatrick said.
