Thousands of PTO dollars stolen from MPS school

The parent teacher organization for one Milwaukee Public School has only a few dollars in their account. That's because someone stole thousands of dollars.

The PTO at Roosevelt Middle School worked hard to raise thousands of dollars by doing numerous fundraisers such cafeteria sales, dinner theaters, and arts productions. But none of that money ended up going to the students.

Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts actually hasn't had a PTO since 2013, when the then-president resigned, but last spring, the school secretary noticed "all the money was missing."

Of the over $8,500 dollars left in the account when the PTO disbanded is now only $2.50. Now the Milwaukee District Attorney's office has been piecing together where the money went.

According to a search warrant, some of the money was used to pay WE Energies and Progressive Insurance bills. When the Milwaukee Public School Audit Services looked into it, the accounts belonged to a former "officer" with the PTO board.

Thousands of the PTO dollars were withdrawn from the same ATM over many years. All the withdrawals were from the Harley Davidson building at 37th and Juneau in Milwaukee.

Harley Davidson told investigators the ATM can't be accessed by the public. Employees would need to swipe a badge to get to the 5th floor ATM. The warrant shows the same former PTO officer didn't work for Harley Davidson, but she did work as a housekeeper at that building.

We reached out to MPS, and they're looking into the situation. The woman hasn't yet been charged, but police are looking into how many days and times she accessed the Harley Building.