“We are hoping and praying that this is only going to be a temporary glitch,” said Kecia Williams, director of the school.
Williams said the high school had 70 students enrolled for this year. Parents have already been notified, she said. But the school was focused on kids who were close to dropping out.
“There’s a lot of students who probably will not return to school,” she said.
The closure came because school administrators were unable to get a third party to take over management of the school. This was required under an agreement that settled a lawsuit the school filed against Kids Count when the sponsor tried to close the school in June by backing out of its sponsorship agreement.
Kids Count of Dayton is the school’s sponsor, meaning it receives a small percentage of the school’s state funding in order to make sure the school complies with state laws. Kids Count director Ethel Washington-Harris said a third party was needed because school officials would not respond to her concerns.
“We were not receiving the responses to our guidance to avoid non-compliance, so we felt we needed a management company to come in and manage them because we were unable to work with the administration,” she said.
The high school has been open for 10 years and received $553,180 to educate 72 students last year. Enrollment at the school reached its height in 2012-2013, when it received $855,269 to educate 123 students.
But a state audit released Thursday noted that an investigation by the auditor’s office and Ohio Department of Education is ongoing into allegations that the school billed the state for kids who weren’t there.
“The Academy allegedly failed to withdraw certain students from enrollment who were in non-attendance during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years,” the audit says. “As a result, the Ohio Department of Education may have over-funded the Academy based on inflated student enrollment figures.”
The audit notes that students are supposed to be taken off the books if they miss at least 105 consecutive hours of instruction or enter a juvenile detention center.
Williams said Friday that there were differences in what she considered excused absence versus what the state considered excused, especially for kids who were sick, pregnant or incarcerated for a couple days.
“There are times when we would give kids excuses instead of putting them out because our whole goal is to keep kids in school,” she said. “If there are mistakes, we will do everything in our power to rectify those.”
Parents of kids signed up for General Chappie James Leadership Academy need to either get their kid into another charter school or take them to their home public school district.
Dayton Public Schools spokeswoman Jill Moberly said Friday that they had not yet been notified of the closure. Most of the kids at the school are from Dayton, according to state records.
“We would be ready to take on these additional students if that is the case,” she said. “The impact for us would be the influx of additional students in now the fourth or fifth week of the school year.”
“Continuity in instruction better serves children, and this would be a disruption for them.”
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