Principal suspended for misuse of school funds.

After her plan to cater an alumni event hosted at her school fell through, a principal directed the caterer, whom she had improperly paid directly from school funds, to deliver the food to her friend’s party.  The Commission sought to suspend the principal’s educator certificate for two years based on its determination that the principal had always intended to cater her friend’s party using school funds.  However, the Court modified the Commission’s proposed sanction to a one-year suspension because the evidence showed the principal’s misuse of public funds was not intentional, but rather the product of her poor planning and execution of the alumni event.