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Superintendent of Direction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, started an audit more than a year earlier into the financial concerns of the Alternatives for Youth and Opportunities for Learning (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent study charter schools within the California schools system, which are independently run however funded by the state.
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Superintendent of Direction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, initiated an audit more than a year back into the financial issues of the Choices for Youth and Opportunities for Knowing (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent research study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run but funded by the state. The OYO California schools serve trainees who have actually left of the conventional high schools. They currently have about 15,000 students in 40 store areas throughout the state. These California schools students do most of their work at home, meeting with teachers twice a week. According to state records, trainee accomplishment test and high school exit examination scores are above average, as compared to other alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times article of August 10th, only 11 percent of OYO trainees finished during the 2003-2004 academic year. The rest of students that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or moved to other schools. The California schools' audit was conducted by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Support Team, who concluded their analysis and provided their findings in a report that was launched in August 2006. The audit points out accounting flaws, overpayments by the state, disputes of interest, nepotism, extreme payment, and blending private business issues with public schools. The OYO was established and still operated by John and Joan Hall, former teachers from Hollywood High School. They have totally cooperated with the California schools' audit, but disagreement most of the findings. Some examples from the audit report are: • Accounting Problems and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their instructors as 1.92 full-time positions. Their spokesperson, Stevan Allen, specified that this is a typical practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a genuine technique for compensating school personnel for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent O'Connell thinks teachers need to be counted just as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, citing that conventional California schools instructors spend much less time working each year than those is car donation worth it at OYO. However, the auditors thought the 1.92 amount is inflated. This example, alone, accounts for over half of the $57 million overpayment. Furthermore, the report noted a number of questionable expenditures. One example of unrestrained spending, given by the Times was an $18,000 staff celebration held at Disneyland. Allen protected that event as an attempt at relationship building in between personnel members, who are scattered throughout the state. He noted that the expenses was less than $50 per employee. • Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Service with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and operate numerous personal services that sell products and services to schools. The Times kept in mind that the Alternatives in OYO was the nonprofit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit calls this practice and setup into concern. • Extreme Settlement. The audit also questions the combined salaries for the Halls, which is $600,000 every year. The report states that it might be extreme for the amount of time the couple really works. • Nepotism. The Halls developed a different charity with $10.8 million of the California schools' financing, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their child, Jamie Hall. Little loan has actually been spent towards education therefore far. The Halls compete that they previously had actually requested guidance on their operation from the California schools lot of times, but never ever got any response. Hence, they attempted to follow California schools requirements as best they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of
the pointed out practices are illegal. The audit recommends the California schools should try to recover the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has actually sent out the report to the state's chief law officer's workplace for review and any necessary action.
