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Former Boston head of school allegedly misused nearly $40,000 of public money, including on personal vacations
Naia Wilson was the head of school for New Mission High School, a pilot school in Hyde Park, for 13 years. Over the course of 3 years, she allegedly used over $38,000 in school money to pay for vacations for herself and her friends.
Authorities have charged a former Boston Public Schools principal with one count of wire fraud for allegedly misusing nearly $40,000 in public money on things like all-inclusive personal vacations.
Mattapan resident Naia Wilson, 60, served as the head of school at Hyde Park‘s New Mission High School, an autonomous pilot school within Boston Public Schools, from 2006 to 2019, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts said in a press release Tuesday.
Between September 2016 and May 2019, Wilson requested checks from the school’s account that were listed as being for other people, the release said. She then allegedly fraudulently endorsed those checks and deposited the checks into her own account. The persons the checks were for never knew of the checks or authorized Wilson to deposit them in her own account.
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Wilson used some of the embezzled $38,806 to pay for two all-inclusive vacations to Barbados for herself and her friends in 2016 and 2018, the release said. Both times, Wilson requested checks payable to other people who went on the trips.
“Instead of working honestly on behalf of her students, Naia Wilson is accused of abusing her authority and using the school’s budget as her own personal slush fund,” FBI Boston Special Agent Christopher DiMenna said in the release.
Wilson recorded the fraudulent checks as being for stipends and expense reimbursements, but some of the people the checks were issued to never worked at New Mission, The Boston Globe reported.
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Federal prosecutors began investigating Wilson at the same time that an independent audit of Boston Public School’s spending flagged New Mission for shoddy recordkeeping, the newspaper wrote.
Superintendent Mary Skipper thanked the U.S. Attorney’s office for its efforts to restore misappropriated funds to Boston students in a statement Tuesday.
“The Boston Public Schools takes its responsibility as a steward of public funds very seriously,” Skipper said. “…Since these incidents, the Boston Public Schools has implemented additional internal protocols and procedures to prevent a situation like this from occurring again.”
Pilot schools like New Mission are given maximum autonomy over their budget and spending. School administrators decide how to spend the money, ostensibly based on the needs of the school.
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The schools’ budgets are comprised of money allocated by Boston Public Schools based on the number of students each school has. The schools’ bank accounts are managed by an external fiscal agent who issues checks at an administrator’s request.
Matthew Cahill, executive director of the Boston Finance Commission, told the Globe the school district should increase scrutiny of schools’ spending.
“They want the schools to have autonomy, but that comes with trust,” he said. “…When you see a breach like this, it really disintegrates the trust people have in government, and that is upsetting to us.”
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Wilson left New Mission to serve as the principal of Randolph Community Middle School, the Globe reported. But by Tuesday evening, the middle school’s website listed someone else as the principal, and Wilson was not listed anywhere on it.
The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.
But, the Globe reported, Wilson already has a plea deal with prosecutors. If a judge approves the deal, she will reportedly serve up to 90 days in prison, two years of supervised release, and will have to pay back only what she defrauded the school.
Wilson’s attorney, Peter Charles Horstmann, characterized the misuse of public funds as a lapse in judgment to the Globe. He reportedly said Wilson recognizes what she did was wrong.
“She will pay her victims back and get on with her life. We hope the sentencing judge will balance all her good work at New Mission against a modest lapse in judgment,” he told the Globe.
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