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Ex-Boston Headmistress Who Used School Money For Tropical Vacations Avoids Jail Time: Feds

The former leader of a Boston school who admitted to using nearly $40,000 set aside for the children's education on personal expenses and tropical vacations will not go to prison, but she must repay the money, authorities said. 

New Mission School

New Mission School

Photo Credit: Boston Public Schools/New Mission School

Naia Wilson, 60, of Mattapan, was sentenced on Tuesday, Jan. 9, to 90 days of home confinement, two years of probation, 160 hours of community service, and a $25,000 fine, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. She must also repay the $38,806 she took from Boston Public Schools. 

Wilson pleaded guilty in September to a single count of wire fraud. 

Wilson served as headmaster at New Mission School in Hyde Park from 2006 until 2019 and had "maximum autonomy" over its finances, the prosecutor said. Pilot schools are given more latitude over how they spend the public money given to them each year. 

Christopher DiMenna, head of FBI's Boston office, said Wilson used taxpayer funds as a personal "slush fund."

Starting in 2016, Wilson requested checks from the school's fiscal agent in the name of other people, but she would deposit that money into her account, the prosecutor said. This continued through May 2019.

Wilson also fraudulently requested money to pay for vacations to Barbados for her and her friends in 2016 and again in 2018 at all-inclusive hotels, authorities said. She asked that the checks be made payable to the people who went on the trip with her and then fraudulently endorsed them, authorities said.

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