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1. Superintendent of Instruction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, initiated an audit more than a year back into the fiscal issues of the Options 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 however funded by the state. The OYO California schools serve trainees who have left of the traditional high schools. They currently have about 15,000 trainees in 40 store locations throughout the state. These California schools students do most of their work at house, conference with instructors two times a week. According to state records, trainee achievement test and high school exit examination scores are above average, as compared to other alternative junk car donation near me high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times short article of August 10th, just 11 percent of OYO students graduated during the 2003-2004 academic year. The remainder of students that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools. The California schools' audit was performed by the Financial Crisis and Management Support Team, who concluded their analysis and presented their findings in a report that was launched in August 2006. The audit mentions accounting problems, overpayments by the state, conflicts of interest, nepotism, extreme settlement, and blending personal company issues with public schools. The OYO was established and still run by John and Joan Hall, former teachers from Hollywood High School. They have totally worked together with the California schools' audit, but conflict the majority of the findings. Some examples from the audit report are: • Accounting Flaws and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their instructors as 1.92 full-time positions. Their representative, Stevan Allen, mentioned that this is a common 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 must be counted only as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, citing that standard California schools teachers spend much less time working each year than those at OYO. However, the auditors thought the 1.92 amount is pumped up. This example, alone, accounts for more than half of the $57 million overpayment. Additionally, the report noted numerous questionable expenses. One example of unrestrained costs, provided by the Times was an $18,000 staff celebration held at Disneyland. Allen defended that occasion as an effort at relationship structure in between staff members, who are spread across the state. He kept in mind that the costs was less than $50 per personnel member. • Conflicts of Interest and Mixing Private Business with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and operate several private companies that sell materials and services to schools. The Times noted that the Options 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 concern. • Excessive Payment. The audit also questions the combined salaries for the Halls, which is $600,000 every year. The report states that it might be excessive for the quantity of time the couple really works. • Nepotism. The Halls developed a different charity with $10.8 million of the California schools' funding, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their child, Jamie Hall. Little loan has been invested towards education hence far. The Halls contend that they previously had actually asked for assistance on their operation from the California schools often times, but never got any action. Hence, they attempted to follow California schools requirements as finest they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of the cited

2. practices are unlawful. The audit advises the California schools ought to attempt to recuperate the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has actually sent the report to the state's attorney general's office for review and any required action.