The Golden State Schools' Analysis Reveals Unnecessary Costs And Overpayments To Group Of Charter Schools

1. Superintendent of Guideline 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 study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run however moneyed by the state. The OYO California schools serve trainees who have dropped out of the conventional high schools. They presently have about 15,000 students in 40 shop places across the state. These California schools trainees do the majority of their work at home, conference with instructors twice a week. According to state records, student achievement test and high school exit examination ratings 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, just 11 percent of OYO trainees graduated during the 2003-2004 school year. The remainder of trainees that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools. The California schools' audit was carried out by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Group, who concluded their analysis and presented their findings in a report that was released in August 2006. The audit points out accounting flaws, overpayments by the state, disputes of interest, nepotism, excessive compensation, and mixing personal organisation issues with public schools. The OYO was founded and still operated by John and Joan Hall, previous instructors from Hollywood High School. They have actually completely complied with the California schools' audit, however disagreement the majority of the findings. Some examples from the audit report are: • Accounting Defects and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their instructors as 1.92 full-time positions. Their spokesperson, Stevan car vs donation Allen, specified that this is a typical practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a legitimate technique for compensating school personnel for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent O'Connell believes instructors must be counted just as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, pointing out that conventional California schools instructors invest much less time working each year than those at OYO. However, the auditors believed the 1.92 quantity is pumped up. This example, alone, accounts for majority of the $57 million overpayment. Additionally, the report noted several questionable costs. One example of unrestrained spending, offered by the Times was an $18,000 personnel party held at Disneyland. Allen defended that event as an attempt at relationship structure in between employee, who are scattered across the state. He kept in mind that the expenses was less than $50 per personnel member. • Conflicts of Interest and Mixing Private Service with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and operate a number of private organisations that offer products and services to schools. The Times noted 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 question. • Extreme Compensation. The audit also questions the combined incomes for the Halls, which is $600,000 yearly. The report specifies that it may be extreme for the amount of time the couple really works. • Nepotism. The Halls produced a separate charity with $10.8 countless the California schools' financing, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their child, Jamie Hall. Little loan has actually been invested towards education hence far. The Halls contend that they formerly had actually requested guidance on their operation from the California schools numerous times, however never ever received any response. Thus, they attempted to follow California

2. schools requirements as finest they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of the mentioned practices are prohibited. The audit suggests the California schools must attempt to recuperate the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has sent the report to the state's attorney general of the United States's workplace for review and any essential action.