School board may shut down Port St. John charter school

The fate of a Port St. John charter school will be decided Tuesday as the school board reviews an audit of the school’s spending habits.

After a revealing audit report, school board members will decide at Tuesday’s meeting whether or not they will extend a 90-day letter to close Campus Charter School, said School Board Chairman Amy Kneessy. The audit will be presented at the meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Educational Services Facility in Viera.

Following a string of calls from whistleblowers, officials at Brevard Public Schools called for an audit of the Campus Charter School on Curtis Boulevard in Port St. John. Calls indicated that there may be some kind of wrongdoing, and the school was red-flagged, said Stephanie Archer, director of charters and choice schooling for BPS.

In response to the calls, the district hired McGladrey, an independent tax and consulting firm, to audit the school. The audit’s findings show that chairman of the school’s board of directors Tom White authorized a $24,000 loan to Campus Developmental Research Schools, the company to which the school leases its facilities.

According to the audit, the loan was not compliant with the state’s Red Book, a list of rules and regulations for Florida’s charter schools. The Red Book states that charter schools may not make any kind of loan

There is still $19,000 due on the loan made to CDRS, the audit states. Meeting minutes indicated that the loan had never been given to the school’s board of directors for approval, and the board had not granted the chairman authority to authorize the deal.

“The only thing we know is that the school loaned the campus research development company that amount of money. That was the big red flag to us. And that doesn’t appear in any of their documents," Archer said.

White responded in a letter to FLORIDA TODAY:  “ ... We were notified by the Brevard County School District that we had 30 days to respond to the “specific areas of concern.” A cursory review of the report indicates that there are inaccuracies contained within McGladerey’s (sic) report.  The Board of Directors of the school will conduct an investigation into the assertions made by McGladrey LLP. The Board takes these allegations seriously, and the parents and students at the school should rest assured that operations will continue as normal. We look forward to having a great 2015-2016 school year.”

CDRS owner Chris Glatz also owns Educators Management Group,  which currently provides services to the school, such as systems for curriculum or evaluations, said Christine Davis, BPS coordinator of choice charters and strategic planning. This kind of partnership is common, she said.

McGladrey’s audit also shows cash flow issues for the school. Currently, the school’s bank account is overdrawn and is in arrears $28,817.

Findings also concluded that the school’s board of directors was not meeting six times a year, as its bylaws require, and had only met four times in fiscal year 2013-14.

The report also stated multiple times that the school did not respond to numerous requests for information, leaving many questions unanswered.

“There are a lot of documents they’re supposed to furnish that they would not furnish,” said Kneessy.

Campus Charter School is K-6 and has 160 students, Archer said, and given the school is shut down, those students will be given the option to relocate to other area schools, which will be prepared for their arrival. According to the school’s website, there are 17 employees. If passed by the board, this will be the first charter school to shut down since the closing of Explorer Charter School in 2009.

“If they can turn this around the school could stay open, but there are some pretty serious things going on,” Kneessy said.

Archer said the school could be in a “financial emergency,” which means it does not have the funds to operate or pay its employees. To stay open, there are many steps, she said.

“They would have to come up with a corrective action plan if it could be corrected in order to keep them open, but if there are other extenuating circumstances there are numerous decisions you have to make in the best interest of students,” Archer said.

In Brevard, 11 Charter schools operate under BPS, but are managed by their own board of directors, said Archer. BPS monitors the charter schools, but does not govern how they spend money.

“Charter schools are funded with taxpayer dollars, but we don’t control those taxpayer dollars,” said Davis. “That’s their governing board’s responsibility.”

Contact Saggio at 321-242-3664, JSaggio@FloridaToday.com or follow @JessicaJSaggio on Twitter.