SEATTLE — The state Charter School Commission has launched a second investigation into Washington’s first charter school.
The new probe focuses on possible financial misconduct at the school, The Seattle Times reported in Wednesday’s newspaper. The previous investigation focused on academic and organizational shortcomings.
The Charter School Commission has asked the state auditor’s office to look into the Seattle school’s finances.
The commission is concerned about how the school spent its startup funds. One consultant has questioned whether the school has spent those state dollars to pay off debts from when First Place Scholars was a private school. By law, public money can be used only for the newly opened charter school.
The school’s board has until Feb. 17 to turn over a long list of documents to prove it is financially and academically capable of running the school.
First Place opened this past fall as a public charter school after 25 years as a private school.
The Charter School Commission is in charge of approving and overseeing most of the state’s charter schools. It has approved seven other charter schools, with six scheduled to open in fall 2015.
In its latest inquiry, the commission also is checking up on the school’s academic program and whether teachers are adequately tracking student progress and why enrollment has dropped from nearly 100 students in November to about 80.
The school already was on probation for other issues, including inadequate special-education services, incomplete staff background checks and out-of-date emergency plans.
Some have questioned whether the school’s current problems should have been noticed during the charter approval process. Audits from the 2012 and 2013 fiscal years show expenses outpacing revenue at the nonprofit that runs the school and a low-income-housing facility.
John Kerr, one of First Place’s new board members and chairman of its finance and audit committee, said he was surprised the commission didn’t ask for any of the group’s past audits.
The commission now says it will ask for three years of financial audits, when available, from any group wanting to open a charter.
In a letter, dated Feb. 2, Joshua Halsey, the commission’s executive director, told First Place’s board of directors that the commission is concerned whether the school has enough money to keep its doors open for the rest of the year. He says board President Dawn Mason has alleged financial malfeasance, although Mason now denies that.
Linda Whitehead, the school’s new principal, says the school has come a long way, and she and other school leaders are confident they can turn around its problems.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Mason, a former state legislator who is now the First Place board president. “People keep calling and saying, ‘How can I help?’
“We’re feeling really supported; we just need time.”
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