Lakeside-Somers Parent-Teacher Association is sorting out how much money was allegedly stolen from the organization’s coffers over the past year by the organization’s treasurer.

PTA President Mary Powell said letters were sent home with students on Friday explaining how the board discovered that more than $4,600 had been embezzled from the group and how it intends to move forward.

Powell said several group members had a suspicion in the beginning of the present school year that funds were missing. The treasurer was “grossly mishandling funds,” according to Powell.

“She basically wasn’t letting anyone look at the books,” Powell said. “She was always putting us off. Once we insisted that we see the books, she actually came to me and confessed to $4,600 of embezzlement.”

The organization is working with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and the group’s bank to see if more funds may be missing and how to recover the money.

The amount discovered missing thus far amounts to between 15 and 25 percent of the revenue the group typically raises in a year, Powell said. The funds are used for activities that include bringing the Missoula Children’s Theater to the school, Graduation Matters programs, and teacher mini-grants. The group plans to begin fundraising for new playground equipment soon.

“They do a wonderful job,” Somers-Lakeside Superintendent Paul Jenkins said about the PTA. “Teachers apply for the grants, for things that they might need in the classroom, but that they might not have the money in their budgets.”

Jenkins and Powell said discovery of the embezzlement is both fortunately and poorly timed ahead of the PTA’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Powell said it is fortunate the mess was found before a large influx of funds muddied the waters further, but that it also has put a bit of a damper on the upcoming Holidayfest.

Powell said the group is dedicated to moving forward.

“We want to emphatically state that the board will be open, honest and transparent throughout this whole process,” Powell said. “No stone will be unturned... What the PTA gives back to the community from this event, Holidayfest, far outweighs what one person’s devious actions does to put a blight on the organization. We hope that all those who have supported this holiday event in the past continue to support us in this trying time.”

The accused treasurer declined to comment on Wednesday. She has not yet been charged in court.