We previously read about El Camino Real Charter School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The principal got into trouble because he was moonlighting as a coach for the NBA and charging his travel expenses to the school (i.e., the taxpayers).
The principal spent over $100,000 on personal items and charged them to the school. The school learned of the principal’s lavish spending in October 2015. This past week, the board decided to hire an investigator. Why did it take eight months to act?
He bought a $95 bottle of fine Syrah. Paid for first-class airfare and luxury hotel rooms. And racked up a $15,500 credit card tab at Monty’s Prime Steaks & Seafood.
David Fehte, executive director-principal of El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills, used the same school-issued American Express card to charge $100,000 over two years. Some charges came while moonlighting as a college basketball talent scout for the San Antonio Spurs.
Now the El Camino high board of directors has decided to launch an independent financial probe of the popular principal’s spending. The forensic accounting comes ahead of a year-long management assistance review by a state financial turnaround agency prompted by the credit card scandal.
“I want guidance from agencies to tighten up the (school fiscal) policy,” El Camino board Chairman Jonathan Wasser said after a unanimous vote late Wednesday to pay for the probe of its principal. “I believe in due process.
“We need to have the forensic accounting look over all the information because it’s big, and I’m not an accountant, and it requires somebody trained to look over the evidence.”
It gets worse.
Carl Petersen, a charter school parent at another charter school, reports on the efforts at El Camino Real Charter School to pre-empt the story before it came out. The school and the principal went into a defensive crouch, treating those who questioned its finances as enemies.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Anybody remember voting for the board chairman? I appreciate his calculated belief in due process, but to whom is he “accountable”? Certainly not the public.
Powers that be, give El Camino back to the democratically elected LAUSD Board. Granada Hills, too.
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This type of financial abuse is rare in public schools. Politicians like Ohio’s Sen. Sherrod Brown are WRONG, to ask for accountability of charter schools. The cost of that bureaucratic oversight is an unreasonable expense for taxpayers. Shut down the charter school plot of Gates, ” to develop charter school management organizations that produce a diverse supply of different brands on a large scale”, so that the tax money remains in the community and is spent on students, not used as a piggy bank for corporate rephormers, who lack the personal values that are essential to public trust and to the education of good citizens.
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Public school funds have layers of overseers such as the Supt., the BoE, staff, and the public. Charters generally have virtually NO oversight nor accountability of their use of public funding.
Here is what the Dem Platform has just said about public schools v. charters.
“Democrats are also committed to providing parents with high-quality public school options and
17 expanding these options for low-income youth. We support great neighborhood public schools
18 and high-quality public charter schools, and we will help them disseminate best practices to other
19 school leaders and educators. Democrats oppose for-profit charter schools focused on making a
20 profit off of public resources. We instead support increased transparency and accountability for
21 all charter schools.”
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Thanks.
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Tip of the iceberg. Good tactic of the school’s board to enlist the state’s help in investigating this abuse of public funds, unfortunately, California charters are overwhelmingly doing these things, the state knows it, they don’t care. I don’t mean to sound so negative but this type of abuse of public monies has been going on awhile. Will this investigation yield any real reform, I don’t think so. Heck, this principal is probably already using another credit card in the same way.
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One word: JAIL!
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That is the answer-real jail, not a country club vacay. This is theft, pure and simple.
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El Camino also tried to save itself money by encouraging the senior teachers there to switch back to LAUSD before they retired – thereby relieving itself of the need to pay for those retirements. It tried to shift the cost back on the state public school teachers’ retirement fund (Calstrs). Those teachers were paid considerably more than their public school counterparts. El Camino is an affiliated charter school – meaning it is affiliated with LAUSD but does not have to follow those rule on budgeting or pay scale.
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This is another data point showing that giving public money to private groups without public oversight invites abuse and corruption. Many people say that charter schools can be good but we need more accountability. I disagree. Even great charter schools like High Tech High and the Pruess school in San Diego open the door for privatizing public schools and the dual administration increases costs.
Charter school management should immediately be transferred to the school district in who’s boundaries they sit. Democracy is the superior governing principle.
The charter school experiment has failed to improve education, has harmed public schools and has unleashed enormous and ubiquitous fraud and abuse. Opt-Out of this failed experiment. Friends don’t let friends put their children in charter schools.
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Tuitican…the problem at LAUSD is that the man in charge of overseeing the charters which the BoE approved, Cole-Gutierrez, was formerly working for the CCSA…and he seems to be firmly supportive of Mrs. Angel who is often spoken of as the mendacious spokesperson and lawyer for charters.
Educator…please expand on this situation since you are more informed than I.
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If a public school principal was using school funds for his personal use, there would be no question that he was breaking the law.
If a charter school principal does the same, there seems to be all kinds of questions as to who has authority to stop him.
If anyone doesn’t understand what is wrong with this dual system, they aren’t paying attention.
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Everyone reading this post MUST take a close look at Carl Petersen’s article. It also includes a link to another article he wrote on El Camino’s sister school, Granada Hills Charter High School.
http://www.changethelausd.com/a_charter_with_its_hand_in_the_cookie_jar
Both are independent charter conversions with a total of at least 8,000 students between them. They were both top schools prior to becoming charter. Sadly, some parents do not care whether fraud and abuse is going on at these charters as long as their own children get what could be likened to a private school education paid for out of public funds.
What is most disturbing is that CCSA(California Charter School Association) will claim that charters are subject to intensive oversight through yearly reviews and audits. Apparently, that was enough in the case of El Camino. With the head of LAUSD’s charter division a former employee of CCSA, could this fact contribute to oversight that is less than sufficient? And, there is still no evidence that LAUSD took any steps other than to send out a “Notice to Cure” when it discovered the improper use of the credit card.
Interestingly enough, both schools have budgeted in the neighborhood of $200,000 yearly for travel and conferences. Anyone wonder why now????
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thanks Educator for the link to Petersen’s article…where is Zimmer in all this…and why is the BoE not being active?
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This is the same CCSA that loudly proclaims its charter schools are public while arguing in court that they are private entities not subject to unionizing and oversight (see Alliance Charter battle against UTLA and PERB).
So charters are private companies, but the schools they run are public? No. They can’t have it both ways.
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I don’t know about this case, but USDE grant applications from charters operators included huge amounts for travel–usually for “convening” managers and for selected teachers. I looked at the 2012 grant applications and reviewer comments for charter expansion. The ripoffs included expenses for marketing the new charters, ad for recruiting students and new teachers (including their travel for an interview), uniforms for students, new tablets, new furniture, other things that tax payers should not be billed for. Facility grants had already been applied. That was a separate USDE program. Perhaps the most astonishing was a request for a proportionate reimbursement for staff time and employee benefits for workers at the KIPP foundation–overflowing with money from contributors–for partial oversight of the grant.
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Just another perspective on Los Angeles – a few years ago the people who started a charter in the wealthiest African-American neighborhood of Los Angeles decided to take the money and run to another state. Nothing happened to them and in fact Mayor Riordan tried and successfully helped save the charter. I learned that this charter pushed children out who didn’t get high test scores (no surprise there) and continued this practice. There is truly no one of any power here in this forsaken city who will fight this issue. Our board constantly caves to charters — and has a charter owner on it. And with a governor on the board of two charters, we will never get proper legislation. Another reason for revolution.
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Yes, Joan…and with the Governor’s sister, Kathleen, being a lead lawyer/partner for the firm that represents most of the billionaire charter privatizers, and also some of the U of C Regents, what can we expect? Brown appointed Ref Rodriguez, owner of 16 charters which are being viewed for mismanagement of finances, to the most prestigeous State ed committee. Rodriguez got into LAUSD BoE office by benefit of using ‘hook or crook’ behavior with false ads denigration Kayser, and also using Voteria bribery who bought votes for cash. And the billionaires poured endless cash into his election.
Disgusting.
We on the West Coast should be in the streets. My eyes teared with your use of the phrase “forsaken city” and indeed we do seem to lead the nation is so many forms of corruption…which seem acceptable to government agencies and the lazy jaded public.
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Why would this corruption surprise or shock anyone? It is part and parcel of the whole so-called ‘free market’ ideology.
With the top businesses in the country paying none or next to no taxes, receiving corporate welfare and government benefits by the trillions, having oversight and regulation gutted and chronically underfunded, and as of today not a single Wall Street executive or banker doing time (only whistleblowers go to jail now) for crashing the world economy and ruining the lives of billions, and employees’ increased productivity rewarded with stagnant wages below the cost of living, no benefits or pensions, etc. this is the modern American way of doing business.
How is this different from a CEO making millions, if not billions, while tanking a company? How is this different from poisonous food, crappy products that break easily and cant’t be repaired, and little to no customer service because every penny goes to investor profits?
We have lost our way and the brave new world of corporate citizenship and total capture of government, this new fascism, could not lead anywhere else but the monetization of public edication and the subsequent grifting, profiteering, and corruption. There were far too many dollars being spent on schools and far too few markets left to decimate after the housing and tech industries were burned to the ground by greedy bankers and immoral profi-seekers.
Americans and citizens of many other countries under the neoliberal fascist taskmasters are facing a choice of taking back our governments and public services from failed capitalism run amok or facing an inevitably bleek, harsh, and comfortless future,
Stop being surprised and start organizing!
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Chris…it is your LA colleagues who write here often who are in the trenches attempting to organize soulless others including teachers, parents, and residents of our area, and get them to protest. This is thankless and not very effective in Lotusland. If you want to take a shot at it, I am sure some of us might offer you room and board if you would give us a respite from our attempts to organize those who do not give a hoot, for so many years.
Do you think we who write here are just wasting out time?
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Ellen,
You are not wasting your time. We support each other, give each other strength. We fight on everywhere because we must. Don’t give up. All bad things come to an end.
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Long day..typo…meant are we wasting OUR time?
We live in the midst of the enemy…Broad, Milken, Wasserman, Lynton, on and on…and they have the money to buy the LA Times articles, to buy the non profits like United Way, to buy the lawmakers, and even to buy the school district. They are our neighbors but they do not see us from their chauffer driven Rolls Royces and their palaces in LA.
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Ellen, I thank you for what you do. I attempt to wake others up. It is not a criticism of you but rather a clarion call, which seems to be more Casandra here than anything.
I have been fighting my whole life, as a poor person, a teacher, a gay man, a Roman Catholic, and a Union activist. As a resident of Florida for nealry 15 years I am on the front lines as well. Jeb Bush and ALEC test ecerything out here years before LA or CA slam them onto their schools.
Repeatedly acting shocled and surprised that people and things act as predicted means that few understand what is going on and without understanding there is little hope to defeat it. Perhaps there are other ways to fight and room for all our chosen methods?
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Some people think they are entitled. I’m sure he is able to justify these expenses (in his mind), but while he may think we owe him, the rest of us feel he owes us (at the very least an explanation).
It will be interesting to see which way this tug of war ends.
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The vulture fund billionaires are closing schools so they can profit in Puerto Rico just like they starved them in Detroit. We are at war with greedy people who see schools as cash cows instead of a public good. This film is a must watch:
From pincipals who drain a school’s funds for personal gain to vulture fund owners, schools have formidable enemies and we must educate and convince people to come to their defense in the voting booth and beyond.
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Greed? What do you all think of a school that boasts about selling $55 million in bonds then further boasts how “we have more kids on a waiting list than we have enrolled” That school would be Gulenist operated Harmony Public Schools in Texas. Shades of junk bonds. http://www.slideshare.net/GulenCemaat/gulen-harmony-public-schools-sells-55-million-in-bonds-63593141
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