tronanews.com

Two virtual charter schools have repeatedly reported false average daily membership numbers, or ADM, allowing them to receive too much tuition support, according to the State Board of Accounts. When auditing Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, the State Board of Accounts State Examiner Paul Joyce submitted an affidavit saying he had “been advised that both (schools) have substantially misreported their ADM to the State of Indiana.”

Just one process in California is designed to act as an early warning system when financial shenanigans are going on inside schools. It’s a yearly audit, by a “state-approved,” “independent” auditor, according to the Department of Education.

A3 and its alleged scheme covered huge swaths of California, and key players in the operation found creative ways to make children into A3 students — largely just on paper — so they could cash in.

wildrose wrote:With the superintendent of Trona Joint Unified School District now on leave it does seem likely that there was something less than completely honest going on between the district and this charter school operation. It doesn't seem like the local news outlets are going to cover this one very aggressively.

Prosecutors leading the A3 charter school criminal case want to take back potentially millions of dollars of charter school oversight fees that were paid to small school districts that were supposed to hold the A3 schools accountable. The districts also collected oversight fees from the A3 schools beyond state law limits and beyond the actual costs of oversight, prosecutors allege. They want the excess oversight fees, which are state educational dollars, to be returned to the state. The districts named in the motion are Dehesa, Trona Joint Unified in San Bernardino County, Bradley Union in Monterey, Cuyama Joint Unified in Santa Barbara, Acton-Agua Dulce Unified in Los Angeles and Meridian Elementary in Sutter.

Former Trona Joint Unified Superintendent Keith Tomes testified in May that A3 leaders made a kind of “sales pitch” to Trona to authorize their charter school, telling Trona that “the oversight fee could come in handy.”

Trona officials could not be reached for comment.

blackturtle.us wrote:Second Interim Financial Report - Two numbers were of particular interest. $1.1 million will be paid back to the state due to the charter school fiasco. Also, the projected balance at the end of the current financial cycle for the district after accounting for all currently planned spending will be $10.8 million. [This makes it hard for the district to qualify for Financial Hardship funds which would potentially pay for 100% of needed earthquake repairs. However, the district will still qualify for Facility Hardship funds which potentially pay for 50% of costs associated with earthquake recovery.]