The Golden State Schools' Audit Reveals Extreme Spending And Overpayments To String Of Charter Schools

1. Superintendent of Guideline for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, initiated an audit more than a year ago into the financial issues of the Options 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 but funded by the state. The OYO California schools serve students who have actually left of the standard high schools. They presently have about 15,000 students in 40 store locations across the state. These California schools trainees do the majority of their work at home, meeting with instructors twice a week. According to state records, student accomplishment test and high school exit exam 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 students finished throughout the 2003-2004 school year. The remainder of trainees that left school that year either left, were expelled, or moved to other schools. The California schools' audit was performed by the Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Group, who concluded their analysis and provided their findings in a report that was launched in August 2006. The audit mentions accounting flaws, overpayments by the state, disputes of interest, nepotism, excessive compensation, and blending private business concerns with public schools. The OYO was founded and still run by John and Joan Hall, previous teachers from Hollywood High School. They have actually fully worked together with the California schools' audit, but dispute the majority of the findings. Some examples from the audit report are: • Accounting Problems and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their teachers as 1.92 full-time positions. Their spokesperson, Stevan Allen, stated that this is a common practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a legitimate method 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, mentioning that standard California schools instructors 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, represent more than half of the $57 million overpayment. Furthermore, the report noted a number of doubtful costs. One example of unrestrained spending, offered by the Times was an $18,000 staff party held at Disneyland. Allen defended that occasion as an effort at relationship building between personnel members, who are scattered throughout the state. He kept in mind that the costs was less than $50 per team member. • Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Company with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and operate several personal businesses that offer products and services to schools. The Times kept in mind that the Choices 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 Settlement. The audit likewise questions the combined incomes for the Halls, which is $600,000 each year. The report mentions that it may be extreme for the amount of time the couple in fact 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 actually been spent toward education so far. The Halls compete that they formerly had actually requested guidance on their operation from the California schools lot of car donation npr times, however never ever received any response. Hence, they tried to follow California schools requirements as finest they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell

2. conceded that none of the mentioned practices are prohibited. The audit suggests the California schools need to try to recuperate 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 essential action.