Police Audit Says Another $19,000 in Fees Was Lost from
School's Accounts

By CHRIS BURRELL

Oak Bluffs police now believe that the regional high school culinary
arts teacher charged with stealing $11,000 worth of school-owned
equipment and food supplies may have also pocketed an additional $19,000
in payments that were supposed to go into a student activity account.

Police went to Edgartown District Court yesterday seeking two new
charges against Peter J. Koines: one count of larceny over $250 and a
second count of larceny by false pretenses.

At a meeting yesterday in Tisbury with Vineyard schools
superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash, Mr. Koines formally resigned the
teaching post he has held since 1989, but the superintendent told the
Gazette he won't accept the resignation until there's an
offer on the table for restitution.

"I am considering at this time whether to accept the
resignation. I will be guided in those deliberations by my concern that
the (Martha's Vineyard Regional High School) district be
adequately compensated by way of restitution," Mr. Cash said in a
written statement issued yesterday. "If a fair and equitable
restitution will be an element of any resolution of the pending criminal
matter involving Mr. Koines, then I am likely to accept his
resignation."

Mr. Cash said the culinary program will be staffed in time for the
first school day in two weeks.

The restitution tally appears to be climbing every time a police
officer or an accountant digs deeper into the high school ledgers.

Oak Bluffs police officer George Fisher, who has led the
investigation into Mr. Koines since June, believes that for the last
eight years Mr. Koines has cashed more than $19,000 in checks from the
Martha's Vineyard Rod & Gun Club - payment for
catch-and-release tournament breakfasts prepared by the high school
culinary students every June.

Proceeds from the event were supposed to be deposited into a student
activity to help offset the cost of the students' trip to Europe.

"The checks were being made to the instructor
personally," said Officer Fisher. "And it appears they were
not deposited back to the high school."

A partial audit of the culinary arts department, obtained by the
Gazette yesterday from the Oak Bluffs police, shows that the rod and gun
club paid Mr. Koines approximately $2,500 a year for the breakfast.

Auditor Chris Rogers of Burlington stated in his Aug. 6 letter to
Mr. Cash that after interviewing rod and gun club president Robert
DeLisle, he learned that the checks were written directly to Mr. Koines,
not the high school.

"The original check for the fiscal year 2003 event was issued
payable to Martha's Vineyard Culinary Arts/Peter Koines,"
stated the auditor in his letter. "Mr. Koines requested that the
check be re-issued directly to him, i.e. Peter Koines. Mr. DeLisle
inquired as to the reason the check should be made payable directly to
him. Mr. Koines' response was that it takes too long for him to
get paid through Margaret (Serpa), the district's
accountant."

After checking the deposits into the high school student activity
account for the last two years, Mr. Rogers found no deposits related to
the rod and gun club breakfasts.

"Additionally, and based on a conversation with the principal,
the culinary arts students' final exam was the catering of the
2003 MVRGC (Martha's Vineyard Rod & Gun Club) event,"
Mr. Rogers said in his audit.

According to a letter from Mr. DeLisle to Oak Bluffs police, the
annual breakfast attracts between 275 and 300 people, who are charged
$8.50 each.

"The club felt the price was a bit high, but I believed that
this money raised helped pay for the culinary arts students'
annual trip to Europe. We also had concerns that our check was to be
made out to Mr. Koines . . . [those] new to the board were told that
this was the procedure that had always been followed," Mr. DeLisle
wrote in his letter dated Aug. 11.

Officer Fisher said he is hoping other community groups on the
Island which used the culinary arts students to cater events will
contact Oak Bluffs police.

"Our fear is that the same thing happened with other
events," said Officer Fisher.

Mr. Koines was arrested early last month and charged with stealing
$7,000 worth of school-owned kitchen equipment and diverting $4,000 in
school funds to purchase pie shells and frozen fruit for his own pie
business.

In addition to heading up the culinary department at the high
school, Mr. Koines sells pies at the Farmer's Market in West
Tisbury, which runs from early summer to early fall.

When police searched Mr. Koines' house and outbuilding in Oak
Bluffs in July, they found a 20-quart Hobart commercial mixer, a
stainless steel, four-door refrigerator and stainless steel tables
- items later identified as belonging to the regional high school.

Police, along with high school principal Peg Regan, also believed
that Mr. Koines was routinely using the high school culinary kitchen for
his own business.

The audit received by police and school officials last week delved
into the invoices for pie-fixings and corroborated police suspicions
that the supplies ordered through and paid by the school were not
destined for school purposes.

In the period between April and May for the last three years, pie
baking supplies purchased totaled approximately $8,000.

The auditor also questioned the expense account for the culinary
trip to Italy last March. "On February 19, 2003, Mr. Koines was
provided with $8,000 in traveler's checks from the culinary travel
fund to be used for expenses related to the culinary arts trip to
Italy," wrote Mr. Rogers.

He was supposed to file receipts from the trip with Ms. Serpa.
"As of the date of this letter, no supporting documentation has
been provided," the auditor said in his letter.

School officials have differed over how to handle the fall-out from
the trouble at the regional high school.

Mrs. Regan called for the dismissal of Mr. Koines back in June,
almost three weeks after a member of the culinary accreditation team
told her about equipment missing from the department.

The principal also demoted vocational director Kevin Carr in the
wake of criminal charges against Mr. Koines, but Mr. Cash decided not to
pursue that action against the administrator in charge of vocational
finances and supplies.