AURORA | A former Aurora Gateway High School principal and secretary have been charged with embezzling money from the school, almost two years after allegations surfaced, according to court documents filed in the 18th Judicial District.
Ronald Matthew Fay, the former principal at Gateway High School, is charged with embezzlement of public property, theft and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. He is also accused of intentionally deleting or removing physical evidence from a mobile phone and computer.
Jill Watkins, the former secretary at Gateway, is charged with embezzlement of public property and theft.
Fay and Watkins are accused of embezzling at least $100,000 from the Aurora Public School District from Jan. 19, 2019 to Jun 28, 2021.
An investigation by Aurora police in 2022 reports the evidence prompted them to ask prosecutors to charge Fay and Watkins for their alleged theft of Gateway funds.
Officers were first notified of the theft allegations in early 2022, when APD was contacted by an internal auditor from the school district, who investigated the allegations of embezzlement. APS employees said they had received an anonymous tip in June of 2021 that Fay and his secretary were embezzling money from the school. The district launched an investigation.
Fay and Watkins allegedly diverted money from a number of sources into an account through Alpine Bank, a Colorado-based bank. This account was in violation of district policy and had not been approved by the school board, the report said. The pair also transferred money into a Venmo account that only they could access.
According to the report, Fay and Watkins referred to the Alpine Bank account as the “offshore account.”
Money was embezzled from several different fundraising campaigns for students, the report said. This included the #GoTogether campaign, a fundraiser set up by the school to support athletics during the pandemic; Adopt an Athlete, a fund to help student athletes pay their athletic fees that was donated to primarily by Gateway staff; Shop with an Oly, a program to provide students in Gateway feeder schools with meals, gifts and clothing during the holiday season and Workout For a Cause, a GoFundMe campaign set up by an employee to purchase laptops for students.
“Funds from these campaigns were paid to the Venmo account which then transferred funds to the Alpine Bank account,” the report said. “It was discovered that funds collected from the fundraisers were not used as intended, rather they were used for personal spending, staff gifts, Rotary Club memberships, a drone purchase, a staff holiday party, staff baby shower, travel, and other miscellaneous purchases.”
The money was also allegedly used for a number of trips, including a $1,900 golf trip that Fay took to Austin with another Gateway employee, who told investigators he thought Fay had paid for it out of his own pocket. Watkins told the BDK auditors that the trip was in order to visit the University of Texas, but the other employee said that neither he nor Fay ever went. The trip was during a time period where APS employees were not allowed to conduct business travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fay allegedly used the money to go on another golf trip with his wife to Oakland and on a trip for Fay and several other employees to Dallas, which was allegedly to visit Southern Methodist University and discuss school rebranding efforts.
Over the course of about two years, the report said there were 286 transactions from the Alpine account.
“The money raised and placed into the Alpine Bank account was considered school funds and public money,” the report said. “All the funds were donations from outside sources to Gateway High School, to be used to, or through the school, for the benefit of the students either as a group, or as individuals.”
The theft left Gateway employees, many of whom described to auditors a challenging working environment under Fay, struggling with how to react. While some quickly agreed to press charges, the report describes others as struggling with how to move forward.
Fay and Watkins have a hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. May 7, at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.
Ron and Jill need to go to prison and make full restitution. Ron was a horrible individual to work for. The hard working taxpayers of APS deserve better. And if he is convicted, I hope Aurora Public Schools goes after his pension.
I hope they also audit the financials at Rangeview High School while he was principal there. It’s hard to believe that the fraud suddenly started happening at Gateway when both of them were at Rangeview at the same time.
This is a long time coming. Funny things happened to field trip money at Rangeview—are Rangeview accounts going to be audited as well? Ron made life miserable and excellent teachers left APS because he was ruthless and cruel. If only he could be prosecuted for being an awful human being.
When he was asst. principal at Elizabeth High School, the superintendent and treasurer were found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to six years in jail. Ron learned from the best!! And I hope he gets jail time!
Both Ron and Jill are criminals. They should both have some time in jail, plus pay restitution. I would honestly enjoy a public flogging of them as well. An audit of Rangeview during their tenure would show gross embezzlement from fundraising efforts of the students. Ron, as a boss, was cruel and petty. Complaints to the district went ignored for years.