Ex-principal admits misusing $150,000

The former principal of a magnet school near USC pleaded guilty Friday to misappropriation of public funds for using more than $150,000 in school district money for personal use, some to furnish a vacation home in Hawaii, authorities said.

Philip Toyotome of Arcadia, who had been principal of the 32nd Street/USC Performing Arts Magnet, was ordered to pay $178,000 in restitution to the Los Angeles Unified School District, slightly more than he took, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Toyotome used a school district credit card -- known as a procurement card -- to buy barbecue equipment, outdoor lounge chairs, power tools and DVD players, among other things.

School district officials first noticed the illegal spending during a routine 2006 audit of the procurement cards, said Jerry Thornton, the district’s inspector general.

“We were just looking at anomalies,” he said. “We found quite a few of them, and his was one.”

A subsequent report concluded that school district employees had misspent as much as $1.8 million a year with the cards.

Toyotome, a past president of the local Alliance of Asian/Pacific Administrators, resigned from the school district Thursday, the district attorney’s office said.

Attorney Lawrence Trygstad, who represented the former principal, said his client was relieved to have the case finished. “He took action to responsibly put this thing behind him,” Trygstad said.

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mitchell.landsberg@latimes.com