Woman sentenced for taking lunch money

A former Barnum School District payroll employee who took — and paid back — $14,062 from the school’s food service fund pleaded guilty to theft last fall under the terms of a plea deal.

Nancy Colleen Monfeldt, 58, was initially charged with embezzlement of public funds, one count of failure to pay over state funds and two counts of felony theft in March 2019. The embezzlement and state funds charges were dismissed when she pleaded guilty to the theft charges.

According to the criminal complaint, then Superintendent David Bottem contacted the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 26, 2018, after a routine annual audit uncovered missing funds in the food service fund. During an interview with Bottem and a county investigator, Monfeldt initially claimed she had been “overwhelmed” by her job duties and failed to deposit the cash in a timely fashion. She insisted that the money was available for repayment, but refused to say where she kept it. Monfeldt was dismissed from her job the same day.

On Oct. 1, 2018, she presented the investigator with a check made out to the Barnum School district for the entire amount.

Assistant Carlton County Attorney Jeffrey Boucher said Monfeldt will be on supervised probation for five years and must complete 160 hours on the Sentence to Service Work Crew. If she successfully completes her probation requirements, and commits no violations, she can avoid a felony conviction as the two felony theft charges have a stay of adjudication for now.