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Superintendent of Direction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, started an audit more than a year ago into the financial issues of the Options 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 independently run however funded by the state.
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Superintendent of Guideline for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, started an audit more than a year earlier into the financial concerns of the Choices for Youth and Opportunities for Learning (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent research study charter schools within the California schools system, which are independently run but funded by the state. The OYO California schools serve students who have left of the standard high schools. They presently have about 15,000 students in 40 shop locations throughout the state. These California schools trainees do the majority of their work at house, meeting with instructors twice a week. According to state records, trainee achievement test and high school exit exam ratings are above average, as compared to other alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times short article of August 10th, just 11 percent of OYO trainees finished throughout the 2003-2004 academic year. The remainder of trainees 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 Group, 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, excessive compensation, and blending personal company issues with public schools. The OYO was established and still operated by John and Joan Hall, former teachers from Hollywood High School. They have completely cooperated with the California schools' audit, however disagreement many 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, mentioned that this is a typical practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a genuine approach for compensating school staff for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent O'Connell thinks teachers ought to be counted only as one full-time position each. The auditors car donation milwaukee disagreed, mentioning that standard California schools teachers invest much less time working each year than those at OYO. Nevertheless, the auditors thought the 1.92 amount is pumped up. This example, alone, represent over half of the $57 million overpayment. Additionally, the report kept in mind numerous doubtful costs. One example of unrestrained spending, given by the Times was an $18,000 personnel celebration held at Disneyland. Allen protected that occasion as an attempt at relationship building between team member, who are spread across the state. He kept in mind that the expenses was less than $50 per team member. • Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Service with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and run a number of personal businesses that offer products and services to schools. The Times kept in mind that the Alternatives in OYO was the not-for-profit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit calls this practice and setup into question. • Extreme Compensation. The audit likewise questions the combined salaries for the Halls, which is $600,000 annually. The report mentions that it may be extreme for the amount of time the couple in fact works. • Nepotism. The Halls produced a separate charity with $10.8 countless the California schools' funding, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their child, Jamie Hall. Little loan has been invested towards education so far. The Halls contend that they previously had asked for guidance on their operation from the California schools many times, but never ever got any action. Therefore, they tried to follow California schools requirements as finest they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of the mentioned
practices are illegal. The audit advises the California schools need to try to recover the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has actually sent the report to the state's attorney general of the United States's workplace for review and any essential action.