Ex-employees charged in thefts of $100,000 from historic Eastern Kentucky school
A former employee of Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County has been charged with stealing nearly $100,000 from the historic Eastern Kentucky school.
A grand jury indicted Jeannie Crain one one charge of theft.
The indictment alleges Crain, 47, used money from the school for personal uses. The unauthorized transactions totaled $95,939 between January 2018 and December 2023, according to the indictment.
The grand jury also charged another former Pine Mountain employee, Kaley Butcher, 29, with fraudulent use of a credit or debit card owned by the school.
The fraudulent purchases totaled more than $1,000 but less than $10,000, the indictment alleges.
The grand jury indicted the two on April 17. They were arrested and booked into the Harlan County Detention Center on April 23 but have since been released, according to jail website.
The school contacted police to investigate after realizing there was a problem, said James Greene III, a retired educator who is chairman of the board of the school.
Kentucky State Police investigated.
Green said he could not discuss details of the case, but said the board has taken steps to prevent similar problems.
The board placed Crain and Butcher on leave and they resigned, Greene said.
Greene said Pine Mountain has a sizeable endowment and the thefts won’t endanger its work.
The most recent tax return available for the school from GuideStar, which tracks information on non-profit organizations, showed Pine Mountain had net assets of $9.7 million in 2022.
Pine Mountain Settlement School history
The settlement school, a National Historic Landmark, was founded in 1913.
William Creech, a local resident who wanted to improve education in what was then a relatively isolated spot in the mountains, recruited Katherine Pettit and Ethel DeLong to set up the school.
Pettit, who was from Lexington, had helped start Hindman Settlement School in 1902. DeLong, a New Jersey native, worked at the Hindman school.
Pine Mountain and Hindman were among numerous institutions founded in Appalachia in the late 1800s and early 1900s by progressives and churches at a time when public education was spotty or inaccessible in many places.
Pine Mountain was a boarding school from 1913 to 1949, with students living there during the school year.
With the spread of public education and better roads many of those schools closed, but some took on other roles.
Pine Mountain has a well-regarded environmental education program attended by more than 3,000 students annually, and also promotes sustainable agriculture and Appalachian culture and heritage.
Greene said the school is taking steps to improve, including revising its curriculum.
“I’m optimistic about where we’re headed,” he said.
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