El Camino Real Charter High School used to be a public school. It was always a good school. But now it’s embroiled in a financial scandal because its principal used the school credit card to charge lavish indulgences, including first class air travel, meals, hotels, and other items connected to his other job as a talent scout for a major basketball team.
The teachers are not happy.
Taxpayers should be picketing too.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is it fair for the school’s CEO, Fehte, to get away with a slap on the wrist when many say he should be charged with embezzling public funds?
Some reports say he was romantically involved with a BoE member who protected him, as he spent money on her. If this is true, then they both should be charged, since she was an accessory to his use of the school’s money for his private entertainment, and hers.
Returning some of the money does not excuse his illegal behavior.
The problem is the law. More transparency needed so that such abuses can be quickly discovered
And even prevented. If a charter school board knows that their transactions and decisions are facing real oversight, they’re going to be more careful with public money. This is why we need Assembly Bill 709 to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown today! He only has one more day before the deadline.
Karen…please post your outstanding and educational recent video on the Pacoima charter event, which you aptly called LaLa Land.
It is a tough situation when LAUSD hired a former senior exec at CCSA, Mr. Cole-Gutierrez, as overseer of the charters in the district. He is a friend and supporter of Ms. Angel, who speaks on the value of charters.
And also, when the Supt. colludes with the charterizers such as Eli Broad’s ‘Great Public Schools Now,’ and with BoE charterizers , Rodriguez and Garcia, as was the case recently with the extravaganza they produced in Pacoima. I wish we could get an answer from the District, and from the BoE, about who paid for all that street theater and bussing in of reportedly paid performers from all over LA County.
Why does the LA Times and the Daily News not inform the taxpayers of LA as to who is footing the bills for this kind of charter publicity? Fehte at El Camino is only the tip of this corrupt iceberg. Let’s get Monica Garcia under oath to testify to how she turns out these very costly events.
Why does Zimmer and his BoE not come down hard on reported embezzling of public funds for private use, and also using other public money for street theater? We seem to have ZERO transparency at LAUSD.
The Broad Center @BroadCenter Sep 28
Thank you, @JohnKingatED, for joining the @BroadCenter team at today’s #BroadAcademy session!
Obama Ed Dept continues to operate exclusively within the ed reform echo chamber.
Does anyone from a public school ever get heard in DC, or are 5 billionaires still running things?
I have written here before about a “special school” in MA where similar things happened. Currently controlled by a board of 3 retired Superintendent of Schools and they are sitting on about $12,500,000 in the bank account (it is a computer/technology setup).
According to the original purpose of the school (called a collaborative among towns) these funds should be returned to the member school districts ..
The boxes from the investigation are sitting at the AG’s office in Boston; one man got a $5,000 ethics fine.
I believe in the State of Maryland that there is a law that says these funds need to go back to the general fund in the separate towns if they are not used for the educational purposes. But if no one is auditing the books and there is no accountability then the school committees in the towns don’t know what is owed them. Of course, with charter schools all over the map, you will see this occurring everywhere without proper audits or regulations. The legislature in MA has not done the job …. they wait until after the horse is stolen to repair the loopholes and lock the barn door. I’ve been complaining about this for about 10 years… It is about to get worse with the Question #2 about the cap on charter schools and their “friends on the Board” that the charter schools bring in and they will drain the cities dry of funds and take the profits for their own pockets. (google John Barranco in the Boston Globe)
Hard to stay focused on LAUSD…where crimes seem to be an everyday occurrence. From sexual harassment and retaliatory firing by one Supt., and possibly outright fraud by another, and now a new Supt. who seems to be caving in to the charterizers.
Please see what you all can dig up to help us process our system and get some justice.
Our small group of muckrakers could use all the help we can get, but it must be under California law.
The Nevada Supreme Court has blocked vouchers for private schools, a scheme the governor and education “reformers” tried to put in: http://www.rgj.com/story/news/education/2016/09/29/school-choice-program-unconstitutional-nevada-supreme-court-says/91278708/
Excellent news! Has the voucher money already been distributed for this school year?
It should be noted that the CA Charter School Association(CCSA) is always claiming that charter schools are fiscally accountable due to the authorizers mandated yearly review and the mandated independent audit. However, it is becoming more and more clear that neither of these uncovers the kinds of misappropriation of funds that happened at El Camino. The law has not kept up with the kinds of fraud and waste that are routinely being uncovered. Unfortunately, when these issues are made public, it seems to be due to a whistle blower, not the authorizer or auditor. As with the ACLU study on improper admissions policies, the findings at El Camino were only based on information that was easily accessible to the public. It’s very clear that charter oversight is seriously broken and that CCSA will defend almost any charter regardless of the depth of financial mismanagement.
Just thought you should know that the Chicagos Teachers Union has declared a strike date of October 11th. Do you support us? I hope you do.
Support you 100% Daniel…wish LA teachers would walk out in sympathy. Your mayor is a disaster, but your teachers are heroes.
There’s an old rhetorical question: “How many coincidences does it take for it to be a conspiracy?”
Regarding the legal (non) oversight of charter schools, one has to ask, “How many loophole-ridden state laws does it take to show that charters are all about looting?”
Diane – I am glad you got news of this one. I wanted to leave a message on this one under ‘About’ but I guess you can’t leave a post there anymore. …anyway …very egregious situation at this high school.