Ken East principal resigns after stealing school funds
Incriminating photos prompt resignation
Published: April 09, 2009, 12:30 am
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Kenmore East High School Principal LuAnn E. Ostanski reported to police early last week that $160 was missing from a locked drawer in the school vault.
In fact, that wasn’t the first time money had disappeared from the vault, she told investigators.
She was certainly in a position to know, police say, for one simple reason: Ostanski was the thief.
Someone caught the principal on camera, taking money from a locked cash drawer in the school vault, police said.
“She was basically caught red-handed,” said Town of Tonawanda Police Lt. Nicholas A. Bado. “They provided the photographic evidence, and she confessed. As a matter of fact, she confessed to five or six times taking money from there.”
Ostanski, 54, estimated to police that she took not more than a total of $1,000 from the district. Bado said he did not know whether the school had confirmed that amount.
“She was in a position of trust, and she took advantage of that,” Bado said. “Nobody was paying an awful lot of attention because they trusted her.”
School employees became aware in February that money had disappeared from the cash drawer, police said. The lock to the cash drawer in the vault was re-keyed several weeks ago.
When more money was taken in late March, police quickly pared down the list of suspects. Very few people had both the combination to the vault and the key to the cash drawer inside it.
Confronted with the photos that caught her taking the money, Ostanski confessed and resigned Tuesday. Police did not reveal what accounts were affected by the thefts.
Ostanski came to the Kenmore- Town of Tonawanda School District in 2002 as assistant principal at Kenmore East, where she started at a salary of about $80,000 a year. Two years ago, she was promoted to principal, earning about $100,000, according to payroll records.
The Board of Education met in a hastily called session Tuesday evening to accept her resignation.
She resigned for “personal and family reasons,” Ken-Ton School Superintendent Mark P. Mondanaro said in a brief news release issued Wednesday. “It is my understanding that the Town of Tonawanda Police Department is continuing in their investigation and the district will issue no further comment nor grant personnel interviews on the matter at this time.”
Ostanski did not return a call seeking comment.
Ken-Ton School Board President Melissa Brinson said only that the board had accepted Ostanski’s resignation but declined to comment on when the board became aware of the thefts.
“We as a district have cooperated [with the police] and will continue to cooperate fully in the interest of the students of the district and the taxpayers of the district,” she said.
Ostanski, an East Amherst resident, is being charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The stolen property charge stems from her keeping a set of keys to the cash drawer, police said.
“She kept a set of the keys she wasn’t supposed to have that got her into the drawers,” Bado said. She has since returned them.
She will be issued a summons to appear in Town Court at a future date, police said.
Prior to working in Ken-Ton, Ostanski was dean of students and athletic director in the Lewiston- Porter School District, where she worked for less than three years. Just before she left, the board rescinded her tenure, then abolished her position but later reinstated it.
Lew-Port officials Wednesday said Ostanski’s salary was about $74,000 when she left. News reports at the time indicated that stipends for additional duties bumped her pay to about $90,000.
“I remember her as being polite and well-liked,” said Ed Lilly, a Lew-Port School Board member who was president at the time Ostanski’s position was eliminated.
mpasciak@buffnews.com
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