Ex-Camden teacher pleads guilty to theft

A former Camden teacher pleaded guilty yesterday to a theft charge for her part in a scheme to bilk her district out of $25,000 for meetings that never took place.

Keah Worthy, 33, of Evesham, admitted that, as a member of the school leadership council at H.B. Wilson Elementary School in Camden, she submitted false paperwork to try to get paid for fictitious council meetings. The councils were created through the so-called

Abbott

court decisions. Council members, including school personnel and community members, were paid for attending meetings.

Worthy appeared before Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Holden in Camden.

Worthy quit her teaching job after the Camden school board began an investigation into the matter in 2006. The state will recommend probation when she is sentenced on Dec. 5.

The charge against Worthy was part of a criminal probe that state investigators began in 2006 into spending practices and alleged test-rigging in the Camden schools.

In March 2007, Worthy was indicted with her mother, Juanita Worthy, 61, of Evesham, a former principal of the U.S. Wiggins School; former Wilson School principal Michael Hailey, 67, of Delran; and former administrator Patricia Johnson, 59, of Atco.

As part of the same indictment, the defendants were charged with witness tampering for allegedly pressuring teachers to lie to the school board about the made-up meetings. In addition, Hailey and Johnson were indicted on charges that they conspired to steal more than $14,000 from students and teachers by making them pay for trips that the district had already paid for.

In January, Johnson pleaded guilty in the school-trip and fake-meetings scams. The state is expected to recommend three to five years in state prison when she is sentenced Dec. 5.

Johnson, Hailey and Juanita Worthy retired in July 2006 while facing disciplinary action by the board.

Still pending are charges against Hailey stemming from the meetings and field trips and against the elder Worthy regarding the meetings.

A spokesman for the state attorney general declined to comment on the status of the grand-jury investigation into the rigging of 2005 state reading and math tests at the Wilson and Wiggins schools.

Camden school board member Sara Davis declined yesterday to comment on Worthy's plea.