Atwood has paid $20,000 restitution and may be ordered to pay more after an upcoming restitution hearing."I can't express how sorry I am for the selfish behavior I exhibited in the past," Atwood told the court.Leaving court, Atwood and his attorney declined to comment further.Gdowski said Atwood's actions had done "substantial damage" to the community's trust in Adams 12, a breach he said will take "a very, very long time to redeem and rebuild."The superintendent outlined what that means in practical terms."You'll hear from comments from kids as they go door to door fundraising, saying, hey can you please buy some cookies or some pretzels because our athletic director stole a bunch of money from the district. We get e-mails and phone calls from people saying we dont know if we want to do a fundraiser, do we really trust that the money is going to go to the kids? Those kind of comments come in fairly often," Gdowski said."We're going to work very hard to rebuild the public trust in our district," Gdoswki said.
Atwood, 40, spent 18 years working for his alma mater, including five years as athletic director.In that position, prosecutors said, Atwood enriched himself by pocketing revenues from ticket sales and concessions.The thefts were discovered when Adams 12 brought on an internal auditor. Atwood resigned in 2009 when confronted about the missing money.The school's internal audit found suspiciously low attendance numbers and subsequently, less revenue from sporting events. The audit only examined financial figures from the 2008-2009 school year.That year, Atwood reported 481 paid admissions for a Legacy High School football game against Poudre High School, according to court documents. That raised red flags because a similar game drew 2,117 paid admissions.Court documents outlined a string of brazen theft techniques by Atwood, including removing the large bills from concession stand cash registers claiming it was being done for security purposes.Prosecutors were told by Atwood's ex-wife that she once found $10,000 of school money in a bag stuffed between a cabinet and a wall. She invited investigators to visit Atwood's home, claiming they would find a flat-screen TV that should have been installed at the Adams 12 sports stadium.As a condition of his plea deal, Atwood can never again work for a public school. />
