The executive board of the Bemidji School Employees Association has a problem on its hands: missing money. And its members, with some help from its state parent organization, are looking into how that happened. The Beltrami County, Minnesota Attorney’s Office recently announced that the BSEA is conducting a probe into the high likelihood that an unnamed member has embezzled association funds. The association, a local affiliate of the Minnesota School Employees Association (MSEA), represents non-teaching school personnel such as custodians, bus drivers and secretaries.
The local board believes that one of its members or office employees who had access to the BSEA dues checking account diverted some of that money to cover personal expenses. “We are handling the situation internally,” said MSEA Executive Director Christina Clark in a telephone interview from St. Paul. “I would hope that the public would respect the MSEA and know we are handling this as quickly as we can.”