Community Leadership Academy


CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDER CHARGED WITH THEFT, EMBEZZLEMENT, May 11, 2006, TheDenverChannel.com (CO)
BRIGHTON, Colo. -- An Adams County charter school official was charged with six felony counts and one misdemeanor Thursday in connection with the theft of more than $72,000.

The Adams County District Attorney's Office announced the charges that came at the conclusion of a three-month investigation involving Katie Squair, 51.

She is the founder and former business manager of the Community Leadership Academy and was accused of using checks, wire transfers and debits to embezzle money from the school, which opened in August of 2005.

She was charged with three counts of felony theft, two counts of felony computer crime, one count embezzlement of public property and one count of misdemeanor theft.

Squair was arrested Wednesday and is free on a $10,000 bond. She had resigned from the school last February.

Her next court appearance is June 13.
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SCHOOL CO-FOUNDER GETS 2 YEARS IN THEFT CASE, January 27, 2007, Rocky Mountain News (CO)
ADAMS COUNTY - The former finance director of the Community Leadership Academy will be spending time in prison for stealing $72,300 from the charter school she helped found.

Katie Squair, 51, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison and ordered to pay full restitution, said Michael Goodbee, spokesman for the Adams County district attorney's office.

Squair pleaded guilty to theft last November and has admitted she had embezzled from the school to feed a gambling addiction.

Squair wrote herself checks from the academy's account totaling more than $21,800 and deposited more than $49,700 in wire transfers to her personal bank account.

Christina Gonzales, the academy's acting principal, discovered the improprieties last January and confronted Squair, who resigned.

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