A former administrator at Penn Christian Academy in Montgomery County is charged with stealing more than $579,000 in funds from the school, mostly by stealing coworkers identities and forgery, investigators said. The closed this year due to financial problems.
Katherina Paprocka, 36, of Paoli, Chester County, had been responsible for handling the East Norriton school's finances, and investigators allege she used her access to that money to pay for family trips to London, New York and Florida. Paprocka also is accused of spending school money on in vitro fertilization treatments, rent payments, clothing, food and other personal expenses, police said.
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Paprocka had access to the personal information of employees and volunteers at the school and allegedly got most of the money by stealing their identities and forging their signatures. Police said credit cards allegedly were issued to Paprocka in her coworker's names without their knowledge.
Penn Christian Academy was a nonprofit, K-8 school in East Norriton that relied heavily on funding from donors. Though it is closed now, its board of directors hope to reopen the school next fall.
Paprocka had been hired as the school's senior administrator in July 2020.
Police began to investigate her in October 2021 after a school donor filed a police report claiming Paprocka was embezzling money, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said. The donor, who recently had given the school $70,000, provided investigators with documents showing financial irregularities.
School loans with at least four lenders allegedly had been signed electronically by Paprocka, who listed herself as the "senior administrator and owner" or "executive director and owner" of Penn Christian Academy, prosecutors said. By doing this, Paprocka accessed payroll funding and steered it to accounts she controlled, investigators said.
An analysis of data from banks, credit cards and school records revealed that that nearly $63,000 had been paid to Paprocka's American Express credit card, but Paprocka only had submitted approximately $12,000 in school-related expenses, investigators said.
The school board's former treasurer told police that creditors and bill collectors had made calls about overdue payments, prompting the school to hire an attorney to look into the irregularities, police said.
Paprocka was fired in December 2021, after it was determined she had lied on her resume about her college education and prior work experience, police said.
In September, Penn Christian Academy sent a letter to families and school supporters, saying it needed to close for the 2022-23 school year.
"Events occurring over the last year and a half, and culminating in the winter, led the PCA School Board to announce in March that the school was on a path toward closure, which it has for this year," the letter said.
The school hopes to reopen for the 2023-24 academic year.
"We are laser-focused on bringing in the capital needed to rebuild and move forward towards reestablishing the legacy of affordable Christian education in the greater Norristown area," school officials said.
Penn Christian Academy was founded in 1966 as Penn Square Christian Day School, a nursery school that expanded in subsequent years to include more grades.
Paprocka is charged with multiple felony counts of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, theft, forgery, deceptive or fraudulent business practices and related offenses. She was unable to make bail, set at $99,000 cash, and is being held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility ahead of a preliminary hearing.
"This nonprofit school was defrauded and taken advantage of by someone they trusted as an administrator," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said. "This is a reminder that every nonprofit organization needs to have checks on any employee who has access to its funds so more than one person has control and oversight of the monetary activity. It's the only way to be assured the organization's money is safe."