Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Saturday, August 19, 2006
Charter sponsors play “not it!”
(Rhea Academy founder Monica Rhea)
Just a couple weeks ago, I talked to Todd Haines, who heads up Ohio’s charter school monitoring operation, about how he planned to get tough with charter school sponsors and prevent “sponsor-hopping,” a phenomenon that has resulted from Ohio’s pioneering new law that leaves it up to sponsors to monitor charter schools day-to-day.
So far, troubled schools have become hot potatoes — they hop from sponsor to sponsor, evading consequences for bad performance or other problems, and the sponsors are more than happy to toss them along.
My story today about the apparent demise of Dayton’s Rhea Academy, is a perfect example of how sponsors run in the other direction when the time comes to do the most unpleasant of all sponsor duties — be the hammer and close a school for good.
Ohio’s new approach to charters has the potential to be revolutionary. The theory behind it is that sponsors, invested in the success of the schools they manage, will be better monitors than the state.
But the new law has hit some early bumps, none bigger than “sponsor shopping.”
Hanes told me weeks ago that troubled schools should not be allowed to run — that good sponsorship requires action to either improve those schools or to shut them down.
But here’s what happened with Rhea Academy.
The school’s primary troubles over its seven-year existence have been financial. Here’s an excerpt from my story in December:
“Dayton charter school operator Monica Rhea again owes more than $30,000 for school expenses she cannot document, the second straight year the state auditor has leveled “finding for recoveryâ€? against her. In all, Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery’s office found $31,164 in operating expenses they could not verify was used for legitimate school functions during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2003. That equates to 5 percent of the school’s total operating expenses.”
And another excerpt from that story:
“In 2004, the Ohio audtor issued a finding for recovery against Rhea, the school’s founder and superintendent, for $33,000 for checks she wrote but could not document, money transfers from the academy’s bank account to her personal account and other cash withdrawn or signed off on without documentation. An auditor’s office spokeswoman said the past debt was resolved, but she could not provide details. This time, more than $7,000 worth of school expenses had no invoice or supporting documents, including $4,958 for a life insurance policy on Monica Rhea. There also was $9,152 in debit card spending for travel, including expenses for trips to California and Great Britain and $2,596 in debit card expenses without proof that those purchases were school related.”
After all that, its sponsor, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, decided not to renew Rhea’s contract this year. So the school went looking for a new sponsor and thought it had found one in Education Resource Consultants of Ohio. An ERCO representative called Buckeye and asked them to assign Rhea’s contract over.
But then ERCO’s board reviewed Rhea’s record and it was the financial trouble that dissuaded them from taking Rhea on, a lawyer for the sponsor told me. The board turned Rhea down, and the school went looking for another sponsor. That effort was apparently unsuccessful.
So the question is what happens now? Rhea cannot open without a sponsor. But if it is to close, who is responsible to make that happen?
“Not it,” said ERCO, arguing it never even entered into a contract with Rhea.
“Not it,” said Buckeye. It claimed it was finished with Rhea when it declined to renew the contract and assigned it to ERCO.
Finally the state had to ask ERCO to do the dirty deed and close the school, which apparently it will, barring a last minute affiliation by Rhea with a new sponsor.
It’s not a very good sign that sponsors are ready to get serious about enforcing accountability for their schools.
(Image credit: DDN)
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Rhea Academy expected to close
(Rhea Academy students at recess in Cooper Park downtown)
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
The troubled Rhea Academy charter school apparently will close its doors for good, resolving a sponsor dispute that left no one in charge of the school.
The Ohio Department of Education finally stepped in this week and asked a Cincinnati sponsoring group to close the school after nearly two months of confusion over who was responsible for Rhea Academy under Ohio’s year-old charter sponsorship law.
The trouble began in June when Rhea Academy’s sponsor, Columbus-based Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, declined to renew the school for another year.
Director Patricia Hughes said the group received a request a request to assign Rhea’s contract to Cincinnati-based Education Resource Consultants of Ohio and did so on June 30.
But Phyllis Brown, legal counsel for ERCO, said it’s governing board declined to sponsor Rhea on July 1. Brown and Hughes said as late as this week Rhea had not reported finding a new sponsor and they both expect the school will close.
The question was who was responsible to see Rhea Academy through to its end.
Hughes said Buckeye considered itself finished with Rhea once itnotified Rhea it would not be renewed and assigned to contract to ERCO. But Brown said ERCO never had a contract with Rhea and therefore was not responsible either.
Under a new law that went into effect last summer, the Ohio Department of Education no longer directly monitors charter schools. Instead, sponsors like Buckeye and ERCO handle those tasks, including closing down schools that don’t pass muster.
Steve Burigana, the education department’s chief operating officer, said the state considered ERCO to be the sponsor, but was unclear whether the severed relationship should be treated as a contract termination, which would force the school to close, or a non-renewal, which would allow it a sliver of hope to find a new sponsor in time for school to start.
Brown said that while ERCO finally agreed to the state’s request to close the school and resolve the situation.
“To my knowledge, they’re going to close,� Brown said.
Monica Rhea, founder of the school, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Rhea Academy in the past has opened in early September. It’s website shows only the school calendar for 2003-04 school year.
The latest funding report shows about 50 kids enrolled. Last year Rhea had about 85 in kindergarten to 10th grade.
Rhea Academy has had repeated trouble with its state audits, with the state twice issuing “finding for recovery� seeking to have money repaid and describing the school’s books as “unauditable.�
(Image credit: Jan Underwood, DDN)
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