SAN FRANCISCO – A former associate superintendent for San Francisco Unified School District pleaded guilty this week to 10 felonies for her role in defrauding taxpayers of $15 million while head of Student Support Services.

Trish Bascom was among six employees of the district’s Student Support Services division who were charged with numerous crimes related to grant money diverted into a “slush fund” accounts connected to nonprofits in the area over a 10 year period prior to her retirement in 2010, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

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According to the site:

While just $250,000 of the diverted public funds were allegedly misappropriated for personal use, the rest was improperly shuffled into employee bonuses, technology upgrades and the slush fund account of a prospective employer for Bascom, prosecutors said.

Bascom, 70, retired in June 2010, according to the SFUSD, the same summer the school district launched an investigation into spending in her division. Since then, she has received some $529,000 in pension payouts from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.

“Ms. Bascom started off wanting to do a great deal for the school system and the kids,” her attorney, Stuart Hanlon, told SFGate.com. “She raised the money to use it for children and the school, and she did. She was afraid they’d run out of money, and she wanted to keep these programs going.”

So Bascom diverted the funds to community groups to ensure that leftover funds would not have to be returned, an allegedly long-standing practice in the school district.

And while Hanlon said Bascom “didn’t do this to steal it or enrich herself,” the former administrator allegedly admitted to paying bonuses to herself and others involved in the scheme.

“Of the diverted funds, $6.7 million was spent on student programs, although in violation of grant terms, and $200,000 was spent on computers and telephones for the district’s student services division, authorities said. Bascom was associate superintendent of student support services, and the other employees were former members of her management team,” according to the news site.

Bascom is now cooperating with prosecutors in their cases against her co-defendants, who worked for her or were in personal relationships with those who worked in the Support Services division.

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Bascom was initially charged in 2013 after a three-year investigation found that grant money intended for after-school and health programs ended up at three private nonprofits that work with the district. She pleaded guilty Monday to forgery, embezzlement, perjury and fraud charges and could be required to return a portion of her pension, according to the Examiner.

“Defrauding the public school system comes at the expense of institutions that are fundamental to the future of our children,” District Attorney Geroge Gascon said in a prepared statement. “The needs and interests of our city’s kids must come first.”

District superintendent Richard Carranza said Thursday that SFUSD “has since implemented new protocols to ensure district funds are used for their intended purpose.”

“We conducted a top-to-bottom review of the department and its practices and have put in place several measures to prevent any similar wrongdoing in the future,” he told SFGate. “The actions taken by this small group of former employees does not represent the overall integrity and professionalism of SFUSD’s employees.”