GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A former bookkeeper at St. Peter’s Lutheran Preschool in Rockford is heading to prison after embezzling over $209,000 from the school over the course of several years.
Susan Kacsits, 61, was sentenced Wednesday in Kent County Circuit Court to 1.5 to 20 years in prison. In addition to her prison sentence, Judge Christina Mims ordered Kacsits to repay the full amount of $209,619 in restitution.
Kacsits, who was hired in 2008 as a bookkeeper and accountant, was accused of writing checks from the preschool’s accounts and depositing them into her own. According to police reports, she committed the theft in at least 50 separate instances, dating back years.
“She could not articulate why she thought it was okay to take the money,” a Rockford police officer stated in the 2024 investigation report. “She stated she had no excuse and no reason for taking the money.”
The embezzlement was discovered in 2023, triggering a detailed probe into the school’s finances. Kacsits pleaded no contest in April 2025 to a felony charge of embezzlement of more than $100,000, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
She remains in Kent County Jail awaiting transfer to a Michigan state prison.
