The State Of California Schools' Analysis Shows Extreme Expenditures And Overpayments To Chain Of Charter Schools

1. Superintendent of Direction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, started an audit more than car donation programs near me a year earlier into the financial concerns of the Options for Youth and Opportunities for Knowing (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run but moneyed by the state. The OYO California schools serve trainees who have actually left of the standard high schools. They presently have about 15,000 students in 40 store locations across the state. These California schools students do the majority of their work at home, conference with teachers two times a week. According to state records, student achievement test and high school exit exam scores are above average, as compared to other alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times post of August 10th, just 11 percent of OYO trainees graduated during the 2003-2004 academic year. The remainder of trainees that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools. The California schools' audit was performed by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, who concluded their analysis and provided their findings in a report that was released in August 2006. The audit points out accounting defects, overpayments by the state, conflicts of interest, nepotism, excessive compensation, and blending private business issues with public schools. The OYO was founded and still run by John and Joan Hall, previous instructors from Hollywood High School. They have actually completely cooperated with the California schools' audit, however disagreement the majority of the findings. Some examples from the audit report are: • Accounting Defects and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their teachers as 1.92 full-time positions. Their spokesperson, Stevan Allen, mentioned that this is a common practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a legitimate approach for compensating school staff for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent O'Connell believes teachers must be counted only as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, pointing out that standard California schools instructors spend much less time working each year than those at OYO. Nevertheless, the auditors thought the 1.92 amount is pumped up. This example, alone, accounts for over half of the $57 million overpayment. Furthermore, the report noted several questionable expenditures. One example of unrestrained costs, given by the Times was an $18,000 personnel celebration held at Disneyland. Allen defended that event as an attempt at relationship building in between employee, who are scattered throughout the state. He noted that the costs was less than $50 per employee. • Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Company with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and run numerous personal companies that sell products and services to schools. The Times kept in mind that the Options in OYO was the not-for-profit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit calls this practice and setup into concern. • Extreme Compensation. The audit likewise questions the combined wages for the Halls, which is $600,000 every year. The report states that it may be extreme for the quantity of time the couple really works. • Nepotism. The Halls created a different charity with $10.8 countless the California schools' funding, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their daughter, Jamie Hall. Little money has actually been spent towards education so far. The Halls contend that they formerly had actually asked for guidance on their operation from the California schools lot of times, but never ever received any action. Therefore, they tried to follow California schools

2. requirements as finest they might with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of the mentioned practices are illegal. The audit advises the California schools should try to recuperate the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has sent the report to the state's chief law officer's office for review and any necessary action.