Former head of Hyde Park pilot school pleads guilty to misusing nearly $39,000 in school funds

Naia Wilson, then the head of New Mission High School in Hyde Park, was photographed outside the building on the first day of school on Sept. 8, 2016.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

The former head of New Mission High School in Hyde Park, a pilot school within Boston Public Schools, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to participating in a scheme to defraud the district out of nearly $39,000 by misappropriating school funds for her personal use, officials said.

Naia Wilson, 60, of Mattapan, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Boston to one count of wire fraud, the US attorney’s office said in a statement. Wilson was charged Aug. 1, and her sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

Wilson’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday night.

From 2006 to June 2019, Wilson worked as the head of school for New Mission High School, which as a pilot school receives a set amount of money per pupil from Boston Public Schools and is granted maximum autonomy over its budget and spending, prosecutors said.

From September 2016 until at least May 2019, Wilson requested checks from school funds to be issued in the names of other people, according to the statement. She would then endorse those checks to herself and deposit them into her bank account, prosecutors said. She also misused school funds to pay for two all-inclusive vacations to Barbados for herself and her friends in 2016 and 2018, the statement said.

Wilson faces up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.