CAMPBELL, Ohio - The former Campbell City Schools athletic director and transportation supervisor is facing felony forgery charges after turning himself into authorities.

Ronald Aulet, of Mineral Ridge, is charged with six felony counts of forgery and six felony counts of tampering with records. He was arraigned in Campbell Municipal Court on Friday and issued a $48,000 bond.

According to the police report, the superintendent's secretary noticed a check that was sent to the Ashtabula County Education Service Center for the pre-service training program certificate of completion needed to operate school buses and vans was not cashed yet.

Upon contacting the educational center, the secretary was told the check was never received, nor did they have any record of the particular driver on file.

The educational center also found they did not have records of certification for four other individuals that the secretary claimed she had records for.

Campbell Superintendent Mathew Bowen contacted the school's IT director and made him transfer all the files on Aulet's computer to his, according to the report.

Bowen found a PDF file that Aulet allegedly used to forge, tamper and falsify records and invoices that are issued by the State of Ohio for school bus and van driver certification. 

Bowen then questioned Aulet about the findings, and Aulet told him he needed more time to process everything. He later notified Bowen of his resignation as athletic director and transportation supervisor. 

Aulet had been the athletic director and transportation supervisor for Campbell City Schools since 2015.

During a special Campbell Board of Education meeting on Thursday evening, the board voted to accept Aulet's resignation, and charges were filed against him by the Campbell Police Department the following day. 

Aulet went to the police station Friday to voluntarily turn himself in on his charges, where he was eventually booked, processed and arraigned. 

Authorities' investigation found Aulet tampered with and forged five certifications of completion, and tampered/forged one invoice.

The police report lists six total victims, one of which is the State of Ohio. 

Bowen tells 21 News Aulet did not pocket the money for the certificates.

He says Campbell needed bus drivers, so Aulet took the situation into his own hands.

Rather than waiting on the certificates of completion to come back from the state, he forged the certificates for the already trained drivers to get them on the road quicker.

"Our student safety is number one. That's what's most important here.  So we had to disrupt transportation while we were investigating this further, and while we were cooperating with state officials in transportation, our local police officials and also the State Highway Patrol.  That's our obligation.  Then from there, we did our internal audit to make sure all of our current drivers are legally permitted to transport students and transport students safely," Superintendent Bowen said.

The superintendent says many drivers are now back on the road and permitted to perform their duties again.  The school district's internal audit of driver certificates went back several years to make sure any of their drivers on the road have their official certification from the State of Ohio.

While the school district would not comment on the pending allegations, Bowen says they will continue to work with authorities for the well-being of the students.