Letter: School PTSA Hires Auditor To Examine Funds

An outside auditor has been hired to investigate allegations into mishandling of funds at a local school's Parent Teacher Student Association.

In a letter emailed to Pleasant Hill Middle School parents at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Principal Thomas Rivers said a parent had recently raised concerns about the PTSA.

Rivers said the allegations led the school to meet with Lexington District One CFO John Butler and Larry Montague, a CPA with . After that meeting, a decision was made to hire an outside auditor with Burkett, Burkett & Burkett. A meeting was scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

A message left for Montague at his office on Thursday afternoon was not immediately returned.

In an email to Patch, District One spokeswoman Mary Beth Hill wrote:

"The district, Pleasant Hill Middle School and the PHMS Parent Teacher Student Association are cooperating fully with the CPA firm and hope to resolve the situation soon. The district takes any incident like this very seriously, and we are working closely with PTSA officers regarding this matter."

Maj. John Allard of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department said there were no pending investigations into the organization.

No specifics of the allegations were mentioned in the letter.

However, Rivers, in the letter to parents, wrote he had "full confidence that after this review all matters regarding the PTSA will be resolved. As soon as this review is complete, I will share the findings and you will have an opportunity to see the report."