When Nu Bethel Center of Excellence fell behind on its rent payments, Jeffrey Akers cut them a little slack.

Akers is executive pastor of Bethesda Temple on Salem Avenue, where the school rented space.

“He (school Treasurer Carl Shye) assured me he would get it taken care of,” Akers said.

“That weekend they backed some trucks in, got some stuff out and since then I’ve not been able to get a hold of anyone.”

The school, which only had a few dozen students, Akers estimates, officially closed in 2010.

Between rent and damage to the building, Akers estimates the school cost the church $27,000.

“It was just a mess. Unbelievable,” Akers said.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced Shye is facing charges of embezzling $472,579 from four charter schools in Ohio, including Nu Bethel and New City School in Dayton. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison. Nonetheless, Akers said the allegations against Shye shouldn’t cast a pall on charter schools.

“I think there is a significant need for charter schools. I think they make a tremendous impact,” he said.

Terry Ryan, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Dayton-based charter school advocacy group, said the charges against Shye show the system works to weed out bad seeds, though it could stand to be faster.

“The moves that have taken place to improve quality controls on charters have largely been for the better and things we’ve supported over the last decade,” Ryan said.

‘‘Early on in the charter school experiment there were people opening charter schools who frankly didn’t know what they were doing and there were people providing services to charter schools who either didn’t know what they were doing or were in it to enrich themselves.”

Ryan said he supports recently proposed state legislation that would require charter school treasurers to be licensed by the state, increase penalties for treasurers who mismanage public funds and would allow the state to halt funding for schools whose books were unauditable.