Ballston Spa school board member charged with larceny

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

A 52-year-old Malta woman has been charged with felony grand larceny and falsifying business records, accused of illegally taking $6,000 in public money.

Nancy Lee Fodera of Malta Avenue Extension, a longtime town employee and long-serving member of Ballston Spa Central School District Board of Education, was forced to close her day care center in July 2010 because the state found repeated violations there.

Despite the closure, she continued to receive money from the Saratoga County Department of Social Services associated with the Malta Avenue Extension facility, according to authorities.

Warren County District Attorney Kate Hogan, who is prosecuting the case at the request of the Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office, said a total of $6,146 in pubic funding was illegally claimed.

Hogan said Fodera was arraigned on the charges, which included two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and one count of third-degree grand larceny. She was released to reappear in County Court on Nov. 16.

Fodera would not discuss her case when contacted by The Gazette on Wednesday. She is being represented by attorney John Coseo of Saratoga Springs, who did not return a call seeking comment.

Fodera was first elected to the Board of Education in 1997. She is serving the final year of her fourth, three-year term, according to Stuart Williams, a district spokesman. Fodera graduated from Ballston Spa High in 1977 and had operated a day care center in Malta for more than 20 years.

She also worked as a clerk for the Malta Planning Board and more recently as secretary to the Malta highway superintendent.

Patricia Cantiello, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Children and Family Services, said Fodera had a license to operate two group family day care centers, each one for up to 10 children. However, her centers were inspected by the state and her license was suspended and revoked in July 2010.

The license was revoked because Fodera violated state regulations in a “pattern of non-compliance” regarding serious violations including under-staffing, improper supervision and overcapacity, Cantiello said. Fodera appealed the state revocation but it was upheld in March of this year and became final.

The school district had no comment about the allegations.