{"id":33928,"date":"2021-04-13T14:47:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T19:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=33928"},"modified":"2021-04-14T10:05:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T15:05:32","slug":"oklahoma-city-school-board-calls-for-investigative-audit-of-santa-fe-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/04\/13\/oklahoma-city-school-board-calls-for-investigative-audit-of-santa-fe-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City school board calls for investigative audit of Santa Fe South\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORRECTION: A spokesman for State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd said the word “not” was omitted from his response to a question from StateImpact and the office hadn’t received a copy of OKCPS’s request to audit Santa Fe South Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>

Oklahoma City Public Schools on Monday called on State Auditor Cindy Byrd to audit Santa Fe South Charter Schools.<\/span><\/p>

In a unanimous vote, the district\u2019s Board of Education made the request following an hourlong executive session. <\/span>State law<\/span><\/a> says the state auditor \u201cshall\u201d fulfill the request and a spokesman for the state auditor\u2019s office said Byrd had not received the letter Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThe purpose of the special audit requested is to determine compliance with statutes, rules, policies and internal control procedures,\u201d an OKCPS statement said. \u201cIn light of comments shared at the OSDE Board of Education meeting on Friday, April 9, the Board felt this was an important step to take as an authorizer of Santa Fe South.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Those comments were shared last week by attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education Brad Clark about Santa Fe South\u2019s financial status in relation to a loan it gave another charter , Sovereign Community School, which is currently under accreditation probation.<\/span><\/p>

In a small portion of a five hour meeting, Clark questioned why Sovereign Community School – a charter that\u2019s been <\/span>plagued with operational issues<\/span><\/a> –\u00a0 would want to work with Santa Fe South.<\/span><\/p>

He pointed out figures that Santa Fe South has reported to the state, which illustrated that the charter school spends less than half of its annual state funds on instruction. He further questioned how the district is spending $8.8 million on \u201coperation and maintenance of plant services.\u201d Plant services are generally related to utility delivery.<\/span><\/p>

In an interview, Clark said what that money goes toward isn\u2019t defined and warrants further investigation.<\/span><\/p>

Additionally, Clark said the charter school district is sending millions of dollars to the Santa Fe South Development Corporation, which is also run by the district\u2019s superintendent Chris Brewster. That setup is very similar to one Epic Charter Schools has with its management company.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cI don’t know that it is different as far as the structure. But one thing I don’t know is whether Santa Fe South Development Corp. is actually serving as a management company,\u201d Clark said.<\/span><\/p>

The school has paid a $421,000 \u201cmanagement fee\u201d to the development corporation, according to its <\/span>most recent tax filings<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s highly unusual, but not necessarily a problem, Clark said.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThat was a new one just for me personally,\u201d Clark said. \u201cBut it’s allowed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Oklahoma City Public Schools is the longtime authorizer of Santa Fe South. However, the charter district is switching over to Oklahoma City Community College this summer.<\/span><\/p>

Brewster, Santa Fe South\u2019s superintendent, has called for more funding for charter schools because charters\u00a0 don\u2019t have access to some of the revenues traditional public school districts do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

He tweeted a response to the audit request Tuesday morning.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cLast night’s sneak attack by OKCPS was a cowardly attempt to undermine the good work of SFS,\u201d he wrote in a tweet. \u201cIf there was anything to be concerned about, wouldn’t they have addressed it at some point in the 19 years they have “overseen” our contract? Looking forward to dealing with these bullies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

In a statement to StateImpact, Brewster said he was \u201cblindsided\u201d by the audit request and defended the use of the development corporation.<\/span><\/p>

OKCPS has \u201cnever reached out to us with concerns about the SFS Development Corp, a 501(c)3 supporting organization which exists to support SFS Schools,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe SFS Dev. Corp is a non-profit with no employees which holds the property acquired and developed for SFS Schools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

He further blasted the district.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe have paid OKCPS millions in authorizer fees over the course of our contractual relationship with them and have never received any substantial oversight or support,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>

Byrd, the state auditor, is no stranger to performing special audits on charter schools. And she found a similar relationship to the one between Santa Fe South and its development corporation to one at Epic and its management company.<\/span><\/p>

Late last year, Byrd\u2019s office released a more than 100-page scathing audit of Epic Charter Schools. The audit led to a series of repercussions for the school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The school was<\/span> fined $11.2 million<\/span><\/a> by the State Board of Education, though it hasn\u2019t paid it back. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter appointed special counsel Melissa McLawhorn Houston to review the auditor\u2019s report and make determinations about criminal charges. And the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to<\/span> begin the termination process<\/span><\/a> of Epic\u2019s contract with the state, though that process has been dragged out for months.<\/span><\/p>

In a <\/span>video presentation<\/span><\/a> to the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, Byrd said a second part to the audit was coming.<\/span><\/p>

As for Sovereign – the indigineous-focused charter school that brought Santa Fe South\u2019s financial dealings into the limelight – its future remains even more cloudy. The school has been unable to recruit students and it\u2019s on rocky financial footing.<\/span><\/p>

It recently entered a loan agreement with Santa Fe South, though it\u2019s unclear whether the two sides actually signed that agreement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The terms say if Sovereign can\u2019t repay its debts, the property in the school will be turned over to Santa Fe South, but it remains unclear whether the contract is executable because it wasn\u2019t signed. Sovereign representatives say they plan to repay it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CORRECTION: A spokesman for State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd said the word “not” was omitted from his response to a question from StateImpact and the office hadn’t received a copy of OKCPS’s request to audit Santa Fe South Tuesday.Oklahoma City Public Schools on Monday called on State Auditor Cindy Byrd to audit Santa Fe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":33929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1028,721,1117,710,1320,1338],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33928"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33936,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928\/revisions\/33936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}