YORK TOWNSHIP, Pa.–A former York County School of Technology employee is accused of stealing more than $34,000 from student’s accounts over the past six years, according to charging documents.
Arlene Rossbach, 52, of York, is charged with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received and receiving stolen property. She was arraigned Thursday on $35,000 unsecured bail.
Police began investigating Rossbach in January 2016 after they received a call from Jon Boyer, a Business Administrator with the York County School of Technology, alerting them to the missing funds.
Rossbach was the school’s adult education administrative assistant.
Boyer told investigators that on Jan. 7 a student from the adult education program came to the front office with a receipt and inquired about the status of their account. A school employee found a receipt copy, but no record of it being applied to the student’s account. The employee did some more digging and discovered multiple cases in which this occurred.
School administrators told investigators they believe Rossbach used a ghost receipt book when students paid with cash and then kept the money for herself.
Administrators met with Rossbach on Jan. 13, in which she resigned after admitting to stealing the money, according to the criminal complaint. School officials say Rossbach told them she took the money because her home was being foreclosed on and she planned to pay it all back with her tax return. Later that evening, Rossbach called a fellow teacher and asked him to find and destroy the receipt books for her, court document state. The teacher went to school administrators to make them aware of the conversation and showed them Rossbach’s text messages.
Investigators traced the thefts back to November 2012. Documents show $34,126 was missing, however since the five-year statue of limitations had run out on some of the thefts, the loss amount would be $32,636, according to the criminal complaint.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 25.
