Robin Harkins, 43, of Holmesburg, also paid about $23,000 yesterday to make "full restitution" for the thefts, court records show.

But a school-district employee who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter said that he was outraged by the deal.

"She should have gone to jail," the employee said. "Now, other people might think it's OK to steal from the schools."

Harkins, of Hartel Avenue near Rowland, was charged only with stealing $23,000.

But when Harkins was arrested in May 2008, district officials said that she was suspected of stealing nearly $100,000 from the fund. She had worked at the school, on High Street near Germantown Avenue, for about six years as a bookkeeper.

Parents and students held car washes and bake sales to raise money for the fund, which pays for proms, graduations and uniforms for sports teams.

Yesterday, John Downs, the School Reform Commission's inspector general, said that a school-district audit found that $92,000 was missing from the fund.

"But the evidence - what could be proven in court - was only $23,000," Downs said. "That's all we could link to her."

"[Harkins] may have been responsible for a lot more, or there may have been one or two others who had access to the money."

Common Pleas Judge Karen Shreeves-Johns imposed the five-year probation sentences for five charges of theft, receiving stolen property and tampering with records.

The Rev. LeRoi Simmons, coordinator of the Germantown Clergy Initiative, a volunteer group of ministers who work with students at the school, also was outraged at the sentence.

"If one of the groups of children had gotten together and conspired to steal that kind of money, they would be in jail," Simmons said yesterday.

"How can I look [the students] in the eyes and tell them not to steal and they see people stealing and getting away with it?" Simmons said. "This is not a rich school. This is a school where 80 percent of the children are at the poverty level."

He added that a member of Germantown High's football team recently asked Simmons if he could help raise money for new uniforms.

"This [theft] hurts those kids deeply, and they don't trust the system anymore," Simmons said.

Harkins' mother is a former assistant principal at George Washington High School. Her father was a Philadelphia school teacher. But Downs, the inspector general, said that family connection played no part in the SRC agreeing to the negotiated plea deal with the District Attorney's Office.

Mark D. Schaffer, Harkins' lawyer, did not return several calls for comment. Harkins also couldn't be reached for comment. *