A Medway school which had more than £200,000 stolen by a former employee might never get all the money back.

Last year Sandra Ross was jailed for three years after being found guilty of stealing £212,000 from Temple Mill Primary School, in Cliffe Road, Strood.

Before her sentencing, Ross, 63, of Stone Croft, Meopham, had already given £41,656 back to the school and was subsequently ordered to repay the remaining £170,999 within six months.

Medway Council received the money in May.

This month its audit committee held a meeting to decide what should happen to the funds and decided against returning it to the school.

A report given to councillors said: “Given the length of time over which the misappropriation occurred the purpose for which the funding was provided has now passed so the return of these funds could be seen as providing an excess benefit.

“This option could also be perceived to be rewarding a school when management failings had allowed the ongoing theft of school funds to remain undetected for so long.”

But the decision has angered staff and parents who claim the funds are essential to the school’s success.

Jane Bright, head teacher, said: “We have had to manage on a tight budget as a result of this fraud. There are things the children have missed out on - we haven’t been able to renew our IT system or buy numerous books and resources.

“We are a school on Medway’s ‘requires improvements’ list, but we haven’t had the funds to be able to do things for the past six years.”

She added: “Everyone at the school is very upset. They have been waiting for it to come back in so we can improve.”

The committee voted to spend the money on providing training to reduce the risk of a similar fraud occurring elsewhere in Medway.

A spokesman for Medway Council said the decision still needed to be approved at its next meeting in September.

The move has angered parents.

Richard Lord, whose son Joe attends the school, wrote to councillors expressing his disgust.

He said: “I am appalled that money from the original school budget is not being returned to the school, for the benefit of improving the education of the children there.

“Losing this money once is unfortunate, in our view, to have it stolen twice is completely unacceptable” - Jane Bright, headteacher

"Not allowing Temple Mill to use this money is disadvantaging the children, especially in the light of the recent Ofsted visit, which we believe shows ‘requiring improvement’.

“Losing this money once is unfortunate, in our view, to have it stolen twice is completely unacceptable.”

David Snow, whose son Jacob Gill attends the school, said “It is one of the ‘failing schools’ and Medway Council is trying to keep the money for itself for staff training.

“It is disgusting.”

One parent, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s disgusting that this decision has been made without any consideration of the staff and children at the school. The school has had to make do with its resources as the funds just haven’t been there and there are vital things needed to improve the school.

“I would like to know who has decided this and how they can say we don’t need the money and it would be better blown on unneeded training.”