That is some actual petty money.
A tempest in a golden teapot is ripping a tony Hamptons neighborhood aside — as allegations involving a college principal and a lacking $25 present card have sparked a police report and an enormous investigation, in response to a report.
The low-stakes, high-drama case centering on allegations Amagansett Faculty principal Maria Dorr allegedly stole the cardboard has led to a disciplinary trial full with 1,400 pages of testimony from greater than a dozen witnesses together with footage from 38 surveillance cameras, the Wall Avenue Journal reported Tuesday.
It has price a minimum of $24,800 — almost a thousand instances the worth of the present card itself.
“It’s insane,” mentioned Nika Nesgoda, an artist who splits time between the picturesque hamlet of Amagansett and the Large Apple together with her children and husband.
“The extra particulars that come to mild…the extra it appears there was one thing nefarious occurring on the faculty,” mentioned her husband, Hank Muchnic, a former faculty board member.
The absurdity-laced card caper started on Dec. 15, 2023 when a dad or mum introduced two $25 Amazon present playing cards in purple envelopes to the well-heeled elementary faculty as Christmas-season choices for staffers.
She gave one to longtime receptionist Cassie Butts, and requested Butts to present the opposite to high school occupational therapist Chrissy McElroy.
Butts positioned the envelope in McElroy’s mailbox at 8:24 a.m. however it quickly went lacking or was stolen, in response to the report.
Butts encountered Dorr later that day and informed her in regards to the lacking card — however the principal allegedly informed her to maintain quiet to keep away from getting police concerned, Butts testified.
It’s unclear who first reported the alleged theft however an investigation by interim superintendent Richard Loeschner quickly discovered footage displaying Dorr leaving the mail room with a stack of papers — together with a purple envelope — 13 minutes after Butts made the supply.
In January 2024, after a preliminary investigation by Loeschner, Dorr — who makes $215,000 in response to public data — was positioned on administrative depart.
Dorr, in the meantime, insists she has no concept what occurred to the purple envelope with the Amazon card. She mentioned she discovered a special purple envelope with a $50 fuel station present card in her faculty mailbox — and has since demanded a public disciplinary trial to show her innocence.
“It’s a college. Issues go lacking on a regular basis,” Dorr testified, accusing Butts of spreading unfaithful rumors about her.
Dorr mentioned she discovered the discarded purple envelope in a recycling bin at house and introduced it to Loeschner to clear issues up quickly after the cardboard went lacking.
Loeschner, nevertheless, waved the potential proof apart as a result of the envelope wasn’t signed and later began pressuring her to resign, in response to the report.
The varsity has roughly 110 college students starting from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade and a price range of about $11 million within the tony city, the place celebrities resembling Sarah Jessica Parker and Alec Baldwin personal properties.
Dorr’s lawyer, Arthur Scheuermann, known as Butts “a recognized liar” and speculated that the lacking present card was a setup to kill Dorr’s candidacy for superintendent, the paper reported.
“Cassie tends to decorate issues or not inform the reality on many events,” a college district official testified within the present card trial.
Butts, who retired final February, was endorsed in 2019 for making exaggerated claims towards the then-superintendent, The Journal reported.
The function of superintendent in the end went to Mike Rodgers, a gymnasium trainer and volunteer firefighter, as a substitute of Dorr, who was appointed performing principal in 2015 and has acquired exemplary evaluations.
Residents and lecturers have since reported a “poisonous” ambiance on the faculty underneath Rodgers’ management, the paper reported.
One trainer complained in a survey a couple of bullying cabal who used the academic setting “as their very own private Recreation of Thrones.” One other mentioned they’d fairly resign than work underneath Rodgers.
An arbitrator in Dorr’s disciplinary trial beforehand mentioned a choice was anticipated by mid-February, however there has nonetheless been no discovering.
“So much does journey on this bullsh-t $25 present card,” one dad or mum mentioned. “It’s undoubtedly going to throw an enormous wrench in sh-t — irrespective of which approach it goes.”
McElroy in the end requested native police to not pursue the matter.
Dorr didn’t instantly return a name from The Put up Wednesday.
