Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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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)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, My Favorite DDN Stories
Comments
By Sphinxicu
August 28, 2006 3:32 PM | Link to this
What recourse do the citizens of Ohio have in retrieving the misappropriated funds from the Rhea Academy? I am assume the state education commissioner will spearhead an effort to get the funds back into education coffers. Will there be criminal actions taken so that would-be other charter school misappropriation will be thwarted?