$70,000 stolen from Green Valley High School student funds

Tens of thousands of dollars are missing from Green Valley High School coffers and the school’s banker is “no longer assigned to a job” within the Clark County School District.

School police are investigating a report that at least $70,000 in student-generated funds was stolen from the banker’s car sometime last year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned.

School police Capt. Ken Young earlier this week confirmed investigators are handling the case involving missing money at the Henderson school, but would not comment further. Multiple sources have told the Review-Journal that the theft was only recently reported.

Public records requests show that Melissa Traylor, Green Valley High School’s banker, was no longer assigned to a job within the district as of Feb. 9. Because Traylor is a support staff worker, not being assigned means she is not being paid.

Traylor did not respond to a message seeking comment through the social media website Facebook.

Traylor, the daughter of former Green Valley assistant principal and current principal of Greenspun Junior High School Jackie Carducci, had worked for the past three years as the high school’s banker and in 2013 received $58,000 in total pay and benefits, according to Transparent Nevada, an online database of public employee salaries.

Prior to that, Traylor worked as registrar at Desert Oasis High School and has held various district jobs, including that of custodian, since 2000.

Traylor’s theft report was made as a possible audit loomed at the high school, a not uncommon practice when schools change principals. In this case, current principal Kent Roberts was assigned to take over for departing principal Jeff Horn in September.

Neither Roberts or Horn returned emails requesting comment. Carducci also did not respond to requests for comment.

Under certain circumstances — such as problems in reconciling a school’s bank or cash on hand balances — district policy permits an incoming principal or school banker to request an audit. District regulation 3231 states: “The outgoing and incoming principals and/or the outgoing school bank custodian, as appropriate, will acknowledge in writing their agreement on the cash, bank, and book balances at the time of the transfer of responsibilities. If such agreement cannot be achieved, the Internal Audit Department will be requested to assist in the reconciliation process.”

Horn was promoted to a supervisory administrative position after leaving the high school. He is now an assistant chief student achievement officer and oversees several Henderson schools, including Green Valley.

District officials declined to comment on the case. A district spokeswoman said the district does not comment on ongoing investigations.

That leaves many questions unanswered, including how Traylor came to be hired to work at a school where her mother was an administrator.

District regulation 4124 states: “Employees may not be assigned to a position where they would be directly supervised by a person related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity, except when the Human Resources Division certifies that qualified non-related employees are not available for assignment.” The third degree of consanguinity or affinity would include, parents, spouses and grandparents.

It’s unclear if there were no other qualified, non-related employees that Green Valley could have hired when Traylor won the job in 2012.

As a banker, Traylor collected and tracked free-floating cash at the school, including money from the cafeteria and school bookstore, the gate take at sporting events and profits from student fundraisers.

District and school officials have not disclosed what impact the missing money has had or whether it caused sports teams or other clubs to cancel trips or activities.

Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or702-224-5512. Find him on Twitter: @fjmccabe