School Official Accused of Stealing From Charity

The director of fiscal services for the San Bernardino City Unified School District was charged Monday with embezzling more than $100,000 from a charity fund that paid for medical, dental and eye care for poor students.

If convicted, Shirlee Lowe, 52, faces up to seven years in state prison, said Sylvia Husing, a San Bernardino County deputy district attorney.

Husing said the fund was created through payroll deductions and other charitable contributions of school district employees, so that students whose classroom work was hindered by medical problems could be treated at no cost to them.

Lowe drained the fund of $94,880.54--its entire balance--and then embezzled another $14,552 from a school district account, which she transferred to the charity fund to cover doctor bills that were not being paid, Husing said.

The so-called Child Welfare Fund was independent of the district’s accounts, Husing said. Lowe had volunteered to be the charity’s treasurer and the embezzlement began in 1990, Husing said.

“It’s hard to believe someone would take money in this context,” Husing said.

The project, which spent between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to help indigent students, is in jeopardy “because, with this betrayal of trust, people are now reluctant to have money deducted from their paychecks,” Husing said.

Lowe is scheduled to be arraigned today.