Thursday, August 19, 1999
Former principal under suspicion
St. Mark school missing $50,000
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Police are investigating whether a former principal of St. Mark School in Evanston misused thousands of dollars in school funds, the Cincinnati Archdiocese said Wednesday.
The archdiocese requested the probe in March of Robert Veite, who had been at St. Mark four years until being fired in April. Officials told police they thought at least $50,000 was missing.
Mr. Veite was placed on administrative leave March 19 and fired a month later “for failure to perform his duty as principal,” said Dan Andriacco, archdiocesan spokesman.
Mr. Veite's firing was not a result of the recent allegations, Mr. Andriacco said, but because of poor record-keeping and failure to make payments for teachers' health care and pension plans.
“We found (Mr. Veite made) a number of suspicious payments out of school accounts,” he said, adding he wrote erroneous checks for various services.
Mr. Veite could not be reached for comment.
Mary Krzywkowski, whose experience includes five years as an administrator, most recently at St. Margaret of York in Loveland, and 20-plus years as a teacher, was hired this summer as the new principal.
The total debt for St. Mark parish/school is $911,254, according to the archdiocese. Between March 24 and June 30, the archdiocese paid delinquent bills for the school and church totaling more than
$270,000. It is unclear whether the Montgomery Road church will have to repay the money to the archdiocese, the spokesman said.
The alleged misuse of funds is not expected to have an immediate impact on the 119 students in kindergarten through fifth grade when school opens Monday, Mr. Andriacco said, because the archdiocese is helping St. Mark financially. School and parish officials referred all questions to the archdiocese.
The Rev. Raymond Zarate was replaced Aug. 1 as parish priest by the Society of Precious Blood, the religious order he belongs to, “because of lack of administrative abilities,” Mr. Andriacco said.
Father Zarate, who had been with the church 17 years but was not a member of the archdiocese, failed to do such things as submit an annual financial statement to the archdiocese, Mr. Andriacco said.
Replacing Father Zarate are the Rev. Joseph Rodak and Brother Hugh Henderson.
Bill Bolling of Pleasant Ridge said parishioners are recovering from the shock of losing their principal and their priest.
“People are optimistic,” said Mr. Bolling, a 35-year parishioner. “Of course, we didn't like what happened.”
School officials alerted the archdiocese of suspicions that Mr. Veite was misusing funds, and the archdiocese eventually notified police.
“I'm very angry and upset that I wasn't (made) aware of what took place over there,” said Juanita Mitchell, sitting on her porch across the street from the school. Her grandson, Kimarlon Thomas, 8, is a second-grader at St. Mark.
She learned about Mr. Veite's firing and subsequent investigation when a reporter informed her.
Founded Aug. 15, 1905, St. Mark has 371 households and 903 registered Catholics, according to 1997 figures. It takes $450,000 to operate the school and $12,000 per month to run the parish, Mr. Andriacco said.
This school year, St. Mark eliminated grades 6-8 because of a lack of students. The grades could be added later.
St. Mark parish, along with three others — Assumption in Walnut Hills, Holy Name in Mount Auburn and St. Andrew in Avondale — are slated for merger at an undetermined date.
The churches serve predominantly African-American congregations.
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