A veteran D.C. schools staffer has been placed on administrative leave after she admitted to altering an e-mail that directed school finance officials to send payments to suspect contractors, top school officials said.

Mary Bunn had been told by Board of Education President Peggy Cooper Cafritz that she should either resign or be fired. Bunn admitted to cutting and pasting Board Vice President Carolyn Graham’s signature on a May 17 memo to the school’s comptroller.