Nassau County School Board
Dr. Kathy Burns, Superintendent
March 2, 2018 1:02 p.m.
The following is a statement from Dr. Kathy Burns.
“On Monday, January 29th, two Fernandina Beach High School employees began to suspect that funds from the sale of tickets to a basketball game held at the Fernandina Beach High School were missing. While the school district employees were reconciling gate receipts from the game, in accordance with school district procedures, they discovered what they believed to be a discrepancy between the number of tickets sold and the amount of money collected from the ticket sales.
The employees promptly notified the school resource officer. School Resources Officers notified the Superintendent and an investigation by the Fernandina Beach Police Department was initiated. However, school and law enforcement officials were unable to interview Dr. Lodree that week, because Dr. Lodree had taken sick leave during the second half of the week and was unavailable for an interview. The following Monday, February 5th, Dr. Lodree admitted for the first time that he had taken the funds, and submitted his resignation.
Prior to that time, the Superintendent and administrators of the Nassau County School District had no reason to suspect that Dr. Lodree would take money from the school. The school district recovered the money through a deduction from Dr. Lodree’s final paycheck and the School District has reported Dr. Lodree’s actions to the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practices.”
It’s not about the money, it’s the principal.
Following the 2013 Marching Band hazing incident, Lodree was shocked and stood out and wanting to do what was right and correct the course. It was recommended by the state that the school district create a “anti-bullying committee” to address the culture they detected in their institutional review. I was asked by Lodree whether I wanted to serve on the committee to which I responded absolutely, I was always interested in eliminating the culture of bullying at the FBHS. When I called to follow up on the committee in the spring and went to see him, he said that the School Board was the committee and denied ever saying he would create such a committee. I knew then he was not able to keep his word. I suppose there is still no anti-bullying committee and the beat goes on. I was grateful that the school resource officer who attempted to cover up the hazing was removed for a while, it amazed me how a law enforcement professional could use their position to call an act of hazing something other than hazing and then have the SAO call it hazing by definition. Honesty and truthfulness are important lessons here. Hopefully he was reported to the Florida DOE professional practices committee for investigation s required by law. I am thankful that the rule of law was followed.
Whether the funds were recovered or not, Dr. Lodree committed theft and should be prosecuted for that crime. Good that there were controls in place to uncover the discrepancy and kudos to the employees for reporting it.
Perhaps arrests for Writing Worthless Checks in Duval County / Case 16-2005-MM-034359-AXXX-MA , False Reporting of a Crime and Resisting Arrest in Clay County Case Number 2003-MM-002254, and the garnishment of his wages from the Nassau County School Board for his failure to pay a debt in Clay County Case Number 2008-SC-001639 are not enough evidence for the Superintendent and School Board to realize that Lodree has a problem with money and telling the truth. All of these cases were easy to find by searching online records in Duval and Clay County. Lodree should be arrested and investigated by the proper authorities to determine what other crimes he may have committed and are being covered up.
I am just shocked and disappointed to learn of all these other charges and issues that were in the background. Clearly the school district failed to conduct routine background check and as long as he went to get his doctorate and gain some credibility he could “hide in plain sight”. There is no question that the school board members should ask for a forensic audit of the financials at FBHS to determine whether there is any other pattern of misappropriation of funds or misconduct. I am so sorry for the parents, students and the faculty. I hope that they make changes to improve the integrity and quality of the Principal selection process, the students deserve better.
Spencer Lodree would never have been hired by the Duval County School System if Superintendent Kathy Burns had acted properly in compliance with School Board Policy. The Superintendent should not have allowed an employee who has admitted to felony theft to resign. He should have been recommended to the school board for termination based on Misconduct in Office. By allowing Lodree to resign the Duval County school system was unaware of Lodree’s actions. However, it seems that Duval would have called someone in Nassau County, for a reference before hiring hime.
The Superintendent also was in error by not allowing the authorities to press charges against Lodree. No government agency should allow any employee to commit felony theft of taxpayer funds and not allow the authorities to investigate and prosecute the offender.
The superintendent says she reported Lodree’s actions to the Department of Education office of Professional Practices. By not allowing the authorities to arrest and fully investigate Lodree’s actions the Professional Practices investigation will be made much more difficult. They are already familiar with Lodree because of a parent complaint in 2017 that stated Lodree had lied about his arrests on a Department of Education Recertification form. Burns was aware of the complaint, and of Lodree’s criminal history, yet she still recommended him to be reappointed in June 2017.