Missing concessions funds probe shifts to former principal

More than $40,000 in McGavock High concession stand earnings are unaccounted for, and Metro Nashville Public Schools now considers the matter a human resources investigation.

Mike Tribue, principal of McGavock High School until he was shuffled to a Cane Ridge High assistant principal position last summer, is identified in a state audit as having collected concession stand revenues without having recorded the funds.

Officials with Metro schools have confirmed that the district has received the report, and that the investigation has been turned over to the MNPS Human Resources Department.

Tribue’s current job at Cane Ridge is an 11-month position, and Tribue is currently considered “off duty” by MNPS. The district expects to have received recommendations from its human resources officials in the next few days, according to an MNPS statement.

The audit was conducted by the office of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, and finds that $37,185 in concessions money was unaccounted for between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008. In addition, $4,550 is missing from a summer school concessions program run by two coaches.

According to the audit, the money was turned over to Tribue, at Tribue’s request. Tribue alleges that he passed the funds along to the school’s bookkeeper, but no record of this was found in the audit. Tribue conceded to state auditors that he specifically requested that concession operators not count the funds before delivering them to Tribue, but also contests that he put all collections in his safe at the school.

The audit cites reports of estimated cash receipts from school employees and concession operators that are very different from estimates of Tribue, as well as conflicting accounts of what Tribue did with the money after he received it. The audit also states firmly that the concession and fundraising programs lacked “adequate accountability,” with few records kept, no inventories or profit analyses, and informal reimbursement processes.

“[T]he former principal instructed his staff not only to violate state and school system policy, but also to remove all accountability of the cash over which he obtained sole possession,” the audit states. “Recordkeeping was neither consistent nor reliable. The former principal created an atmosphere which, at the very least, greatly increased the risk of fraud waste or abuse.”

The audit encourages “immediate action” from the school system.

McGavock, Tennessee’s largest public high school, has seen more than its fair share of leadership upheavals in recent years. Last summer, the Tennessee Department of Education replaced former Tribue with interim Mildred Saffel-Smith, and DOE accountability chief Connie Smith recommended at the time that a national search be conducted for a new principal. Saffel-Smith stepped down and retired over the winter, and former Hillwood principal Karl Lang took her place.

Robbin Wall, formerly the principal of the Academy High School in Irving, Texas, was permanently hired for the job this summer. Lang is the new principal of Whites Creek High. Saffel-Smith has retired from the school system.