Former principal blamed for private school’s demise

BOULDER — Former school board members of the now-defunct Flatirons Christian School partly blame the school’s former principal for the school’s demise.

School board members accused Edgar Stayer, 43, in October 1998 of writing himself 60 checks over a nine-month period, totaling almost $11,000 of the school’s money. Stayer, who still lives in Boulder, declined comment.

The worst part of it, says a victim-impact statement to the court, is that many of the students looked up to Stayer.

“Mr. Stayer was a father figure to them,” the statement says. “It is entirely possible that due to the chain of events created by Mr. Stayer’s actions, the school (had) been dealt a fatal blow.”

Stayer was charged in December 1998 with felony theft but accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty in April to criminal impersonation, a felony and misdemeanor theft. He was sentenced to two years probation and 20 days in jail, though he was allowed to leave for work. He also was ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution to the school.

According to court records, Stayer also was arrested in 1978 for felony theft. He received a deferred sentence in that case, meaning the conviction is removed from the record if the person complies with probation terms.

Stayer was contracted as principal and head administrator from August 1997 to June 1998 and was paid an annual salary of $26,775.12, according to a police report. But school board members decided in June 1998 that they didn’t want to renew his contract for the following year and asked him to turn over the school’s checkbook. Upon inspection, Jan Strobel, the school board treasurer, and Mark Ponsor, the school board president, said they found Stayer had falsified the check ledger.

Things got worse after that.

The school board discovered that Stayer, whose responsibilities included paying the school’s bills, stopped making required withholding tax payments, which resulted in outstanding tax debt of $13,500. The school then lost its lease and couldn’t find space for a new school — a challenge for most private schools in Boulder County — in time for the upcoming school year.

Many parents, who had repaid tuition for their children, lost their money and had to re-enroll their children in new schools.

Strobel, whose children now attend a Longmont private school, says she’s praying for the day that the former Flatirons school board can open a new school. But that won’t be happening for a while.

“We’re still trying to recover from our outstanding debt,” she says.

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