A former Heart Butte School District employee was sentenced in Great Falls to more than two years in federal prison on Tuesday for aggravated identity theft and embezzling more than $30,000.
Jonnie Jo Fransis Spotted Eagle embezzled funds by using school credit cards and purchase orders, and spent money at local grocery stores and on gift cards. She pled guilty in August and will pay the money back in restitution. After serving time, Spotted Eagle will be placed on three years of supervised release.
Spotted Eagle forged two principals’ signatures and in a written confession, admitted to a federal agent she had come into the school after hours to fill out school purchase orders for gift cards in $100 and $50 increments while she was on medical leave from her school job.
She said she knew the grocery store would not accept the purchase order without her signature, according to the confession provided in the prosecution’s offer of proof.
The plaintiff’s sentencing memo cited an apology Spotted Eagle wrote, which said her theft harmed the school, and “[t]hose kids don’t deserve to have their school taken away” because “[f]or some, school is all they have.”
In the defense’s sentencing memo, Spotted Eagle’s attorney said she committed the crime to provide for her family including her sick father, who has since died.
The total embezzled funds of more than $30,000 represented less than 1% of the federal funds received by the Heart Butte School District in 2022, the defense said in their memo.
Heart Butte looks to future
The Heart Butte School District on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is repairing the damage left in the wake of outgoing Superintendent Mike Tatsey, who was placed on administrative leave in September of 2023 after being accused of financial mismanagement. The new district superintendent gave a presentation to the Board of Public Education last week outlining the school’s plan moving forward.
The school board in January of 2024 announced it was $2.5 million in debt and cut 30 positions to help get financially whole. The school is the biggest employer in the town of more than 600 people.
Heart Butte School District was one of three schools labeled by the Board of Public Education in “deficiency” accreditation status, and current Superintendent Marcy Cobell gave a presentation to the board on their corrective action plan last week.
The board unanimously approved the plan, which includes working toward decreasing chronic absenteeism in both students and staff, improving technology, creating high expectations for students and improving the climate at school.
At the meeting, Cobell said the school lost students to Browning when interim superintendent Greg Upham came on board following Tatsey’s exit, and the school is working to build that relationship back.
Heart Butte had to start classes and do administrative work remotely for the first two months of school last year to fix a failure in the fire suppression system, and Cobell said it took some time for staff and the board to get to know her as a leader, but added now things are trending more positively.
Heart Butte School Board Chair Joe Crawford said the board appreciates Cobell’s approach to help kids with their education.
Board of Public Education member Julia Maxwell said she appreciates how thorough Cobbell has been.
“It definitely is a testament to your dedication to your newer school district that you’re in, and I really do appreciate the transparency that you presented to us,” Maxwell said.
BPE Board Chair Tim Tharp said he’s spent a lot of time in Heart Butte, and is pleased to see the progress Cobell has made.
“I’m looking forward to some great things,” he said. “Well done. Keep up with great work.”
Spotted Eagle isn’t the only former employee of the district to plead guilty to federal charges in recent years. Patrick Calfbossribs Jr. pleaded guilty to sexual assault involving a minor in July, with the court dismissing a charge for federal sexual abuse of a child under 16 years old.
Prosecutors claimed Calfbossribs Jr. inappropriately touched a 13 year-old student during a trip to attend a school track meet in October 2022. The survivor told investigators that he had slept in the same hotel room as Calfbossribs, and woke up in the morning to the man touching him, the Missoulian reported last year.
Calfbossribs’ sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Missoula County District Court.
Nicole Girten is the education reporter for the Ravalli Republic and the Missoulian.
You must be logged in to react.
Click any reaction to login.
Love
0
Funny
0
Wow
0
Sad
0
Angry
0
Want to see more like this?
Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox.
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Nicole Girten
Education reporter for the Ravalli Republic & Missoulian
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today