August 23, 2016
Superintendent Statement Regarding Theft of Funds

2602 S. Belt Line Rd. 
Grand Prairie, Texas 75052 
972.264.6141 
www.gpisd.org 
 

The alleged theft of funds by the former chief financial officer of the Grand
Prairie Independent School District was a reprehensible act of selfishness and
greed. The school board and I stand in strong support of the law enforcement and
criminal justice community in this process, and if these allegations are true, we
urge that Carolyn Foster be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That
someone serving in a position of authority of an organization whose job is to
educate and nurture the children of our community would violate that sacred trust
is unconscionable. We will work with authorities to retrieve every penny that was
allegedly stolen, and we will work to make sure that such a despicable act will
never happen again.

 

We are very proud of the two finance department employees whose commitment
to public service and diligence in doing their jobs helped uncover Foster’s
apparent misdeeds just one day after she left the district. GPISD accountants Edie
Ellis and Becky Harris told a superior in the finance department on September 1,
2015 about their questions about these funds, and thanks to their work, we
reported this matter to the Grand Prairie Police Department for investigation right
away.
Carolyn Foster apparently abused her authority as CFO to gain access to a vault in
the GPISD administration building, and over a period of nearly a year, she
apparently stole $600,000 in cash. She allegedly ordered this money be withdrawn
from the bank ostensibly to use for cash settlements on non-existent lawsuits and
for special cash awards for teachers for school supplies. If these allegations prove
true, they represent a terrible betrayal of the trust placed in a public official.
We have developed new operating procedures for handling any cash in the
district, with multiple backups and redundancies to make sure that never again can
a single person, even a high-ranking executive, on his or her own authority, gain
access to money that belongs to our schools.
All of us at GPISD deeply regret this apparent violation of the public trust by this
former official. We thank our community for their strong and ongoing support of
our schools and our children, and we will work hard every day to continue to earn
that support.