Epic Charter Schools approves $335 5 million annual budget oklahoman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oklahoman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The co-founders of Epic Charter Schools, who often found themselves at the center of controversy, are no longer tied to the virtual charter school system.
Oklahoman
Epic Charter Schools on Wednesday severed all ties with its co-founders and restructured its school board, signaling a turning point for the embattled virtual charter school system.
Serving 52,000 students, Epic is the largest public school system in Oklahoma.
Ben Harris and David Chaney, who founded Epic in 2011, will no longer have any financial interest or control in the school system. Their company, Epic Youth Services, managed Epic since the school s inception.
Harris, Chaney and Epic have been embroiled in criminal investigations and reports of financial impropriety for years. The school system and its co-founders deny any wrongdoing.
The board of Community Strategies Inc. the board and nonprofit that govern Epic terminated the school system s contract with Epic Youth Services on Wednesday. Epic will not hire another charter management company.
The Enid News and Eagle /The Enid News and Eagle
Shown is Cindy Byrd, state auditor and inspector. In an October report, the state auditor argued that Epic Youth Services was more than just a vendor because the founders made decisions about the schoolâs operations without board approval. Ben Felder / The Frontier
During his first meeting with state audit inspectors in October 2019, Ben Harris, the co-founder of the stateâs largest virtual charter school, was determined to reveal as little as possible about the private management company he had created to run the operations of Epic charter school.
He refused to reveal how the private company Epic Youth Services had spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money for student activities or even say how many people it employed.
Grand jury: Epic system ripe for fraud By: Jennifer Palmer Oklahoma Watch May 10, 2021
A sign outside of 50 Penn Place in Oklahoma City, where Epic Charter Schools leases 40,000 square feet for administrative use. (Photo by Whitney Bryen/Oklahoma Watch)
The state’s multicounty grand jury recently delivered a message to the public: demand more transparency and accountability of Epic Charter Schools, the state’s largest online charter school system.
The grand jury’s investigation of Epic began in October and isn’t completed yet. But it issued a 25-page interim report to inform the public, parents and policymakers detailing “concerning trends emerging in the investigation.” The grand jury wanted to make the information public before Epic receives its funding allocation for the 2021-22 school year.