DALTON, Ga. — A former secretary at Roan School has been charged with felony theft by taking after school officials discovered discrepancies between the funds collected in a Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) fundraiser and what the secretary was reported as depositing at the bank, according to a police report.

Hiralisyaskar Martinez, 49, of 1609 Beverly Drive, Dalton, was charged Wednesday by the Dalton Police Department with felony theft by taking and booked into the Whitfield County jail. She posted bond and was released.

According to the police department incident report, on Feb. 12 an officer visited the school system central office and the school and met with Dalton Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Theresa Perry, Chief Human Resources Officer Mendy Woods, Roan Principal Cindy Parrott and others,

They told the officer that in October of last year, the school’s newly-formed PTO held a color run fundraiser. Money raised during the fundraiser was counted each day by two teachers and the PTO treasurer, the total placed in a spreadsheet and the money placed in “a locked money box in a locked filing cabinet in the front office.” In addition, PTO membership dues were placed in the box. Parrott, Martinez and Assistant Principal Charlie Tripp were the only people with a key to the filing cabinet and the lock box, according to the report.

On Jan. 25, according to the report, “the PTO started noticing inconsistencies in the deposits made and the amounts Martinez was reporting as money raised during the color run fundraiser. Parrott and the PTO asked for Martinez to provide final reports for the money raised during the fundraiser.”

The report said the documents provided by Martinez had different amounts, ranging from $7,789.67 to $9,596.97, and did not match the spreadsheet that included the totals when the money was counted.

Perry came to the school to conduct an audit, which uncovered “some unusual deposits” as well as deposits that weren’t made.

The police report said that typically Martinez would make deposits weekly, but because of the large amount of money coming into the school during the fundraiser she was told to make deposits daily. Martinez would email copies of deposit slips to some PTO members, teachers and administrators. But she was apparently emailing the copies before making the deposits, according to the report, since the copies were missing information that would have shown they had been processed by the bank.

Three of those deposit slips did not correspond to actual deposits at the bank, according to the report.

“The total amount of these deposit slips that Martinez prepared was $1,715.47 (broken down as $1,340.97 cash and $374.50 check),” the report said.

The report said the checks were deposited at a later date but the cash “was never deposited and was missing.”

The audit also found $500 in cash missing from another deposit.

The report said Martinez “was terminated” by the school system on Feb. 1 but on Feb. 4 “Martinez met with Woods and Perry to talk more about her employment. Woods and Perry stated that Martinez said that she was willing to cooperate and willing to pay the money back.”

In a statement, the school system said “Martinez was employed as a paraprofessional with Dalton Public Schools from October 2012 through August 2015, first at Park Creek and later at Roan. She transferred to the bookkeeper position at Roan School in August 2017.”

The incident report said the officer contacted Martinez on Feb. 12 to come in for an interview and she said she would contact him but later that day attorney Steve Blevins contacted the officer, said he was representing Martinez and said he would contact the officer the following week after speaking with Martinez about a possible interview. On Feb. 18, the report said, Blevins called back to say Martinez would not be coming in for an interview.

Blevins did not immediately return a telephone call left at his office Friday afternoon.

“During this investigation, I have concluded that $1,840.97 was stolen by Martinez between October 2018 and February 2019. This amount was the sum of the $1,340.97 stolen from the color run fundraiser and $500 stolen from the 01/14/2019 deposit.,” the report said.