Woman Accused of Embezzling from School

(Santa Rosa, California) The former business manager at a children's learning center, Sheila Accornero, has been jailed for allegedly embezzling nearly $400,000.

Kid Street Learning Center Principal Linda Conklin indicated that Accornero kept duplicate books to fool auditors.

“That's what Sheila was doing; she had a whole second set of books,” Conklin said between greetings to parents and new students beginning the school year Monday at the charter school.

Accornero, 42, is in jail accused of forging Conklin's signature on charter school checks totaling $396,633.87 that she allegedly wrote to herself. The scheme went undetected for more than 2½ years until someone at Accornero's credit union became suspicious of her account activity and alerted authorities, Conklin said.

Accornero reportedly was fueling a drug habit with her alleged offenses.