More than $800,000 was stolen from the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District in an electronic scam that appears to have sent the money to accounts around the world, the school district said Tuesday.

According to the district, it has alerted local police and the FBI.

It said an online payment of $843,254.94 was made to CG Schmidt on Oct. 25 for work the company is doing at the district's new Recreation and Community Services Center that is being built at 2450 S. 68th St. But the payment never arrived.

The initial investigation by law enforcement showed it was "intercepted by criminal actors and subsequently transferred to various other accounts throughout the United States before finally being moved overseas."

Due to the jurisdictional issues and the complexity of the case, the incident was turned over to the FBI's Milwaukee Office by West Allis police last month. According to Director of Finance and Operations Caitlin Windler, “We do not expect this to impact the construction of our new Recreation and Community Services Center. We’ve also implemented procedural changes to address our online banking process and will provide user education and training for email fraud and phishing attacks.”

The district has retained the law firm of Kravit, Hovel, & Krawczyk SC to explore all possible avenues of recovery of these stolen funds, Superintendent Marty Lexmond said.

“At our counsel's advice, we will not be providing further comment or additional details until they have completed their review and have advised the Board of Education as to our legal options," Lexmond said.

Dan Davis, senior vice president at CG Schmidt, issued a statement Monday referring all questions about the theft to the school district.

"We support the district as it works with law enforcement authorities to address the matter and hopefully identify those behind the fraud and bring them to justice," it said.

The West Allis-West Milwaukee School District has spent the last five years rebuilding its financial footing after blowing through more than $17 million in reserves.

Contact Annysa Johnson at anjohnson@jrn.com or 414-224-2061. Follow her on Twitter at @JSEdbeat. And join the Journal Sentinel conversation about education issues at www.facebook.com/groups/WisconsinEducation.