Former Penn-Delco school officials arrested

The former board president of the Penn-Delco School District in Delaware County and its former superintendent were arrested yesterday and charged in connection with an alleged scheme to secretly invest money in a company that operated child-care programs at district schools, Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green announced yesterday.

Keith Crego, the former president, allegedly set up a company in 2005, Quick Start Pre-Schools L.L.C., that provided before- and after-school child care and a summer camp on district properties, according to an affidavit of probable cause made public yesterday. He is accused of using his influence to get the school board to approve contracts between the district and Quick Start and then of demanding and receiving close to $40,000 from Jaclyn Schloegel, the woman running the program.

Schloegel told Delaware County authorities that Crego approached her in the summer of 2005, when she was unemployed, and proposed the creation of Quick Start. She said he filed all the incorporation papers and talked the school board into hiring the newly created company. Schloegel said she never prepared or made any presentations to the school board or district regarding the programs; she was just directed by Crego to come to the district administration building to sign contracts.

Quick Start eventually was awarded four contracts by the district before word surfaced of the investigation earlier this year; its relationship to the district has since been terminated.

The former superintendent, Leslye Abrutyn, allegedly knew about the scheme and told Crego it was a conflict of interest and that she could not participate, according to the affidavit. Nevertheless, Abrutyn eventually invested $10,000 in the company after Crego reportedly threatened to withhold a positive recommendation to any future employers. Under the deal, Abrutyn got a 10 percent share in the company; she allegedly gave Crego a shoebox filled with cash in an elementary school parking lot as her investment, the criminal complaint said.

"The people arrested today are, in essence, charged with violating the trust reposed in them not only by the parents of school-aged children, but by every taxpayer in the Penn-Delco School District," Green said in announcing the charges.

Crego, 37, is charged with violating ethics and public financial disclosure laws and with profiting from a corrupt organization; each of more than 20 felony charges could bring up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine. Abrutyn, 58, is charged with making false statements on financial disclosure forms; one of the charges is a felony and 10 are misdemeanors.

Crego also is charged with possession with intent to sell steroids and Ecstasy that police said had been kept in a safe belonging to him. That charge carries a mandatory two-year sentence if he is found guilty, since Crego's house, where the safe was kept, was within 500 feet of a school.

He is also charged with theft by deception for allegedly getting John Bondrowski, a childhood friend and a newly hired school district employee, to pay him $1,000, supposedly to put into an annuity program. That program did not exist, authorities said, and Crego kept the money.

Abrutyn who had been superintendent since 1997 and a district employee since 1993, resigned as superintendent in July. Crego, who had been on the board since 1999 and became its president in 2001, resigned from the school board in late 2006 after an exchange of abuse allegations between him and his girlfriend, a former board member, were made public. Both subsequently withdrew the charges.

While the operators of the Quick Start program were not charged with any offenses, the company itself was charged with theft for accepting $9,500 in payments from the nonprofit Penn-Delco Educational and Cultural Foundation for tutoring services that were never carried out. The money was returned to the foundation earlier this month.

Both Crego and Abrutyn were arrested at their homes yesterday; Crego lives in Aston, Abrutyn in Lower Merion Township. Crego remains in the Delaware County prison with bail set at 10 percent of $100,000; Abrutyn's bail was $25,000 unsecured. Crego's and Abrutyn's attorneys did not return phone calls yesterday afternoon asking for comment.

Green said that the investigation of matters related to Quick Start is over and no further criminal wrongdoing in connection with the Quick Start investigation had been found on the part of school board members or the educational and cultural foundation.

Dave Seitz, the current president of the Penn-Delco school board, said that though he had known about the investigation, "I was pretty shocked at the charges, not knowing how extensive this thing got - I'm shocked and distraught that this happened."

He added, with regard to Crego, that "I feel extremely disappointed; the district has been betrayed."

And he said that "We always felt that no one else [besides Crego and Abrutyn] was going to be involved in this - I hope that, from now on, the residents can feel comfortable that we have been telling the truth and we can move on."