Trial is still pending for the two boardmembers and superintendent from Arise Academy charged in federal court with taking bribes and kickbacks from a local businessman.
Another CEO of Arise — as well as the now-closed Colin Powell Leadership Academy and the Peterson Entrepreneurial Training Enterprise — was given one year of probation and ordered to pay $275,000 in restitution for his part in an alleged $1.8 million fraud scheme connected to a Cleveland charter school.
Treasurers in trouble
Arise also was known as the Carter G. Woodson Institute. Its treasurers included Carl Shye and Edward Dudley, who together racked up $1.6 million in findings for recovery for allegedly mishandling funds at nearly 30 schools across the state.
Shye went to federal prison after pleading guilty in 2012 to embezzling $472,579 at several schools including the Nu Bethel Center of Excellence and the New City School.
Dudley is still listed in state records as at least partly responsible for $1.3 million in findings for recovery at nine Ohio schools, including the Urban Youth Academy in Springfield, which closed in 2008 after a site visit from the school's sponsor provoked concerns about safety, enrollment and educational programs.
Schools owe millions
The Richard Allen Academies chain of schools in Dayton and Hamilton and the schools' management company have racked up more than $2 million in findings in state audits in recent years. State audits also raised conflict of interest issues.
An I-Team investigation in 2013 found that audits had identified $24.7 million in misspent public funds at schools across Ohio that state officials had written off as uncollectible because the schools shut down.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is trying to collect on nearly 500 findings for recovery against officials at 58 schools statewide. The total amount owed: more than $5 million.
Quick closures
A record 27 charter schools closed last fiscal year, including a chain of eight Olympus high schools — four in Dayton — that closed mere weeks after opening and after receiving nearly $1.2 million from the state.
The state later shut down an attempt by the Warren County Educational Service Center to sponsor three new schools identical to the Olympus schools. ODE singled out the Warren County ESC — as well as sponsors Educational Resource Consultants of Ohio and Kids Count of Dayton, Inc. — for flawed charter plans.
Kids Count shut down General Chappie James Leadership Academy in Jefferson Twp. last year by pulling out of its sponsor agreement — though school officials dragged out the closure for months — because school officials refused to communicate with the sponsor about problems.
Attendance issues
General Chappie James Leadership Academy is one of several area charter schools where state auditors have questioned attendance numbers.
Ohio Auditor David Yost in January announced that a surprise head count of 30 charter schools across the state in the fall found wide discrepancies between the number of kids in class and attendance numbers reported to the state.
The Dayton Technology Design High School had 43 kids in class, for example, not the 153 listed as enrolled that day. Other area schools had smaller discrepancies that Yost said may merit further investigation: Richard Allen Preparatory Academy, Horizon Science Academy Dayton and City Day Community School.
Horizon Academy
Agencies that announced investigations of Horizon Science Academy and its management company, Concept Schools, last year included the FBI, U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Ohio Department of Education, Ohio auditor and local law enforcement officials.
This followed a slew of allegations brought by former teachers and students of the school to the state school board, including school officials not addressing sex among students, administrators tampering with tests and discriminatory hiring. Federal agents were looking into a federal purchasing program.
Transparency issue
The I-Team in 2012 reported that the husband-and-wife owners of the management companies for a chain of local charter schools made more than $400,000 a year and employed several family members.
The I-Team analyzed tax documents of EdVantages, a nonprofit that managed seven schools across Ohio including the Preparatory and Fitness Academy sites in Trotwood, Middletown and Springfield.
The couple’s compensation grew to more than $500,000 in 2012, according to tax documents, before they dissolved the nonprofit and had all three area schools switch their contracts to a for-profit company called Performance Academies, which is controlled by the same people but does not have to disclose executive compensation.
— Josh Sweigart
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