This is some real petty cash.
A tempest in a golden teapot is ripping a tony Hamptons community apart — as allegations involving a school principal and a missing $25 gift card have sparked a police report and a massive investigation, according to a report.
The low-stakes, high-drama case centering on allegations Amagansett School principal Maria Dorr allegedly stole the card has led to a disciplinary trial complete with 1,400 pages of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses along with footage from 38 surveillance cameras, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
It has cost at least $24,800 — nearly a thousand times the value of the gift card itself.
“It’s insane,” said Nika Nesgoda, an artist who splits time between the picturesque hamlet of Amagansett and the Big Apple with her kids and husband.
“The more details that come to light…the more it seems there was something nefarious happening at the school,” said her husband, Hank Muchnic, a former school board member.
The absurdity-laced card caper began on Dec. 15, 2023 when a parent brought two $25 Amazon gift cards in red envelopes to the well-heeled elementary school as Christmas-season offerings for staffers.
She gave one to longtime receptionist Cassie Butts, and asked Butts to give the other to school occupational therapist Chrissy McElroy.
Butts placed the envelope in McElroy’s mailbox at 8:24 a.m. but it soon went missing or was stolen, according to the report.
Butts encountered Dorr later that day and told her about the missing card — but the principle allegedly told her to keep quiet to avoid getting police involved, Butts testified.
It’s unclear who first reported the alleged theft but an investigation by interim superintendent Richard Loeschner soon found footage showing Dorr leaving the mail room with a stack of papers — including a red envelope — 13 minutes after Butts delivered it.
In January 2024, after a preliminary investigation by Loeschner, Dorr — who makes $215,000 according to public records — was placed on administrative leave.
Dorr, meanwhile, insists she has no idea what happened to the red envelope with the Amazon card. She said she found an envelope with a $50 gas station gift card instead in her own mailbox — and has since demanded a public disciplinary trial to prove her innocence.
“It’s a school. Things go missing all the time,” Dorr testified, accusing Butts of spreading untrue rumors about her.
Dorr said she found the discarded red envelope in a recycling bin at home and presented it to Loeschner to clear things up soon after the card went missing.
Loeschner, however, waved the potential evidence aside because the envelope wasn’t signed and later started pressuring her to resign, according to the report.
The school has roughly 110 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade and a budget of about $11 million in the tony town, where celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Alec Baldwin own homes.
Dorr’s lawyer, Arthur Scheuermann, called Butts “a known liar” and speculated that the missing gift card was a setup to kill Dorr’s candidacy for superintendent, the paper reported.
“Cassie has a tendency to embellish things or not tell the truth on many occasions,” a school district official testified in the gift card trial.
Butts, who retired last February, was counseled in 2019 for making exaggerated claims against the then-superintendent, The Journal reported.
The role of superintendent ultimately went to Mike Rodgers, a gym teacher and volunteer firefighter, instead of Dorr, who was appointed acting principal in 2015 and has received exemplary reviews.
Residents and teachers have since reported a “toxic” atmosphere at the school under Rodgers’ leadership, the paper reported.
One teacher complained in a survey about a bullying cabal who used the educational setting “as their own personal Game of Thrones.” Another said they’d rather resign than work under Rodgers.
An arbitrator in Dorr’s disciplinary trial previously said a decision was expected by mid-February, but there has still been no finding.
“A lot does ride on this bullsh-t $25 gift card,” one parent said. “It’s definitely going to throw a huge wrench in sh-t — no matter which way it goes.”
McElroy ultimately asked local police not to pursue the matter.
Dorr didn’t immediately return a call from The Post Wednesday.
