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November 29, 2012
\nBy Nausheen Husain<\/p>\n
Administrators at the American Indian Model Schools\u2014a set of three Oakland charter schools, two middle schools and one high school\u2014responded late Monday night to a 1,080-page notice of violations given to them by the Oakland Unified School District, OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
School officials had been given until November 28 to respond to the district\u2019s allegations regarding improper business contracts, inappropriate credit card usage and lack of school board meeting documentation, but filed their response two days early. If the response does not appropriately answer the questions posed by OUSD school board members about the schools\u2019 finances and organization, the district could decide to revoke the schools\u2019 charters. <\/strong><\/p>\n The response will be summarized and released to the public after the Oakland school board members read it and remove confidential information, such as student or employee names, Flint said. \u201cIt was a long response. It filled up many binders,\u201d Flint said. \u201cThe board will have some guidance from our legal team, but they will ultimately decide the fate of AIMS, whether the schools will remain open and in what capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n AIMS operates three charter schools in Oakland: American Indian Public Charter School, American Indian Public High School and American Indian Public Charter School II. The schools reported a total enrollment of almost 500 students during the 2010-2011 school year; in that year, reports to the California Department of Education indicated that almost 70 percent of the students were Asian, 18 percent were Hispanic and 1 percent were American Indian. For the past few years, the schools have had consistently high Academic Performance Index scores, which measure a school\u2019s yearly progress and determine federal funding. During the 2009-2010 school year, American Indian Public Charter School had an API of 988, the highest of all the schools in the state.<\/p>\n The district\u2019s review of the school\u2019s operations began in 2011, when it was given information from a confidential source regarding \u201cimproper financial dealings\u201d at the AIMS schools, Flint said. Early this year, the Alameda County Office of Education requested that the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) audit the AIMS schools. The audit was released this June. According to the audit, the study team found <\/strong>evidence of problems, including conflicts of interest in awarding school contracts, inappropriate credit card charges <\/strong>made by school officials, and a lack of documentation for decisions made by the schools\u2019 board members in their meetings.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This September, the district issued a \u201cnotice of violations\u201d to the schools based on that audit, as well as public records and previous correspondence between OUSD and AIMS board members. The AIMS administration was given 60 days to provide documentation that the FCMAT auditors said had been missing when they compiled their June <\/strong>report. AIMS administration members were also required to provide a written response to the OUSD, including an explanation or defense against the notice\u2019s accusations, and a plan for remedial measures. \u00a0This is the written response the district has just received.<\/p>\n At a heavily-attended September 27 school board meeting, when OUSD formally gave AIMS the notice of violations, board members emphasized that the notice did not mean they would close the schools, something that concerned AIMS schools parents in attendance. \u00a0 \u00a0But if this new AIMS response proves unsatisfactory, officials made clear, OUSD could begin the process of revoking the schools\u2019 charters.<\/p>\n Some of the central allegations in the district\u2019s notice focus on financial transactions involving Ben Chavis, the founder of two of the AIMS schools and the former director of all three. \u00a0The notice asserts that\u00a0Chavis and his wife, Marsha Amador, collected almost $4 million from contracts made between the AIMS schools and Chavis\u2019 businesses, including lease agreements, storage agreements and construction contracts\u2014upgrading restroom facilities in 2006 and 2007\u2014for the schools.<\/p>\n According to the notice, though the AIMS school board approved the contracts, there is no indication that they were aware of the money Chavis and his spouse would make from their businesses, including Lumbee Holdings and American Delivery Systems. Since state laws prohibit public officials, officers and employees from engaging in a contract in which they have a financial interest, Chavis\u2019 membership on the AIMS board and the AIMS contracts that financially benefited him appear to be conflicts of interest, according to the FCMAT audit report.<\/p>\n To read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 29, 2012 By Nausheen Husain Administrators at the American Indian Model Schools\u2014a set of three Oakland charter schools, two middle schools and one high school\u2014responded late Monday night to a 1,080-page notice of violations given to them by the Oakland Unified School District, OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint said Wednesday. School officials had been given … Continue reading Oakland North: American Indian Model Schools file response to allegations of financial, organizational misconduct<\/span>