MIDDLESEX TWP — A former secretary at Holy Sepulcher Catholic School admitted she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school to support her materialistic lifestyle, authorities said.

Lynn M. Tomlinson, 43, of Penn Township told investigators she “got carried away with the spending and would purchase items such as clothes and jewelry,” court documents said.

In all, state police said, Tomlinson took $315,545 from the school in Middlesex Township between 2007 and 2011.

Some of the stolen money was for tuition payments, police said. Other money was intended for the school’s fundraising program.

On Thursday, Tomlinson turned herself in to authorities at the office of District Judge Sue Haggerty in Saxonburg.

Haggerty arraigned Tomlinson on four felony theft-related charges in the case. She is free on $400,000 unsecured bail.

Tomlinson appeared at her arraignment without an attorney. She did not return a telephone call seeking comment, following the proceedings.

The alleged theft came to light by chance in 2012, when parish officials were questioned about a delinquent tuition bill, according to Father John Gizler, pastor of Holy Sepulcher Parish.

By then, however, Tomlinson had resigned her position.

In a letter sent Thursday to parishioners and school parents, Gizler said that “during a routine follow up on what appeared to be an unpaid tuition bill, our parish business manager discovered the first sign of possible theft from the school.”

The discovery prompted diocesan auditors to conduct a comprehensive review of the school’s financial records.

School officials in May 2012 confronted Tomlinson, who confessed to taking the money, documents said.

She was hired as secretary in 2007. Before that, she served the school in a voluntary position as a kindergarten aide.

As secretary, police said, Tomlinson’s duties included collecting tuition payments and running the school’s fundraising program, in which parents give money to the church in exchange for retail store gift cards. Those gift cards are purchased by the school at a discounted rate.

Under the fundraising program, parents would buy the gift cards at full value from the school, and the school would credit the percent discounted directly to the parents’ tuition account.

Tomlinson told police that when she would receive parents’ checks for tuition, instead of depositing the payments into the school’s tuition account, she would place them in the fundraising account.

Tomlinson said that she “would then typically take out gift cards for the amount of the check,” a police affidavit said.

She allegedly made copies of the tuition checks to make them look as though the tuition was paid, police said.

Tomlinson acknowledged that she mainly took Giant Eagle gifts cards intended for the school’s fundraising program. She used those cards to buy prepaid Visa cards.

She told investigators that she used the Visa cards to pay off her existing credit card bills and utility bills, and to buy jewelry, clothes and other personal needs.

Police said she also admitted taking parents’ tuition payments made in cash.

Married and the mother two teenage children, Tomlinson at her arraignment said she is employed at Macy’s department store in the Pittsburgh Mills shopping center in Allegheny County.

She told Haggerty she has worked there for three months.

Tomlinson is charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received and access device fraud, all felonies.

She also is charged with tampering with records, a misdemeanor.

A preliminary hearing is set for 10 a.m. March 27 at Haggerty’s office.

Meanwhile, Gizler assured parishioners and school parents that the diocese is convinced Tomlinson acted alone.

He also called on the parish and school community to pray for Tomlinson.

“While we most assuredly extend forgiveness,” he wrote in his letter, “we all know that justice must be served as well.”