Cyber Chairman Steps Down Amid CEO's Indictment

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The school's founder, Nick Trombetta, is under indictment.

Now the chairman of the PA Cyber School Board has resigned.

In announcing the indictment of its founder Nick Trombetta, the U.S. Attorney stressed that PA Cyber was not the target of a federal probe.

But now, David Jaskiewicz, the chairman of the school board, has resigned under a cloud of the school's own internal investigation.

Jaskiewicz offered the board no reason for stepping down. But last week, Cyber school employees got a notice from a Philadelphia law firm ordering them to preserve all material related to the education of his daughter Calista Frederick-Jaskiewicz.

The firm, which has been hired by the school, is investigating a complaint received by the state questioning the use of PA Cyber funds to pay for the daughter's college-level courses at outside institutions.

Neither the school's attorney nor its superintendent Dr. Michael Conti would return KDKA's phone calls for comment. But the U.S. Attorney's officer in Pittsburgh says their own investigation is continuing.

And while that investigation may not be targeting the school, federal authorities continue to look at how taxpayer dollars were spent.

Earlier this week, Trombetta's sister Elaine Trombetta Neill pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Federal authorities accused her of heading a dummy corporation which was used to funnel more than $1 million in taxpayer money to herself and her brother.

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