By: Barry Mangold
Oklahoma state regulators overseeing Epic One-on-One Charter School voted on Monday to approve a settlement agreement with the district and to cancel an upcoming termination hearing.
The vote ends a roughly seven-month-long saga between the district and its authorizer, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board. The board threatened Epic with termination after a blistering report by the Oklahoma State Auditor & Inspector in October.
“Today’s vote moves us forward,” said SVCSB Chairman Dr. Robert Franklin after the vote to approve the settlement agreement. “It’s a clarion call to all Oklahoma public virtual charter schools that governance and oversight must be managed transparently.”
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Epic Charter Schools’ governing board voted shortly after midnight Wednesday morning to reform its controversial learning fund.
Starting in July, the details of the fund will be available for public inspection for the first time.
The learning fund gives up to $1,000 to students who are enrolled in the school for educational purposes. In the previous five years, it’s accrued almost $80 million.
The move will solve a major issue of contention between the school and state auditor Cindy Byrd. She sued Epic in 2020 for access to the fund s details, and the case is still being litigated.
Additionally, Epic’s school board set in motion a settlement agreement that would end its termination proceedings before its authorizer. That agreement would have to be voted on and signed by the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.
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Epic Charter School has been hit with more than $10 million in penalties by Oklahoma’s State Department of Education.
The sanctions are largely due to accusations by the state of Epic violating a virtual charter school transparency law passed in 2019.
In a pair of letters to Epic’s One-on-One Charter School and Epic’s Blended Charter School, the district is accused of misreporting how it spends money to the state and overpaying for administrative costs.
The accusations are similar to ones made in State Auditor Cindy Byrd’s investigative audit from last year. The letters were first reported by the
Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education meeting Monday, April 12, 2021.
Oklahoma City Public Schools on Monday called on State Auditor Cindy Byrd to audit Santa Fe South Charter Schools.
In a unanimous vote, the district’s Board of Education made the request following an hourlong executive session. State law says the state auditor “shall” fulfill the request and a spokesman for the state auditor’s office said Byrd had not received the letter Tuesday.
“The purpose of the special audit requested is to determine compliance with statutes, rules, policies and internal control procedures,” an OKCPS statement said. “In light of comments shared at the OSDE Board of Education meeting on Friday, April 9, the Board felt this was an important step to take as an authorizer of Santa Fe South.”