Charter school debt prompts state audit
Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The Arkansas Department of Education has asked the State Bureau of Legislative Audit to review the finances of the Haas Hall Academy Charter School in Farmington, following notice that the charter school owes the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System as much as $ 53, 000.
The state Board of Education learned of the debt and the state audit at a meeting Monday in which the board — on another charter school matter — rejected the Pulaski County Special School District’s request to withdraw from participating in a charter school for students who are in legal trouble or otherwise not successful in traditional schools. The Felder Alternative Learning Academy Charter School is a joint project of the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts.
The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System notified Haas Hall and the Education Department in a July 30 letter that the charter school owed between $ 47, 295. 82 and $ 53, 644. 97 for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years. The letter prompted the department to require Dr. Martin Schoppmeyer Jr., chief executive officer for Haas Hall, to attend Monday’s meeting to explain the past-due balances.
Schoppmeyer read to the board on Monday a letter from his attorney, Charles M. Kester of Fayetteville, that said Haas Hall is not delinquent in its payments to the teacher retirement system but is complying with a previously announced schedule of $ 5, 682-amonth payments intended to pay off the Internal Revenue Service, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration and the teacher retirement system. That payment plan called for the debts to be paid by the end of the 2007-08 school year.
Kester did acknowledge in his letter that an effort was made to pay off the Internal Revenue Service first, resulting in lesser payments to the retirement system. However, a check of $ 22, 296 was sent to the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System on Aug. 9, he said. That check, Kester wrote, puts Haas Hall ahead of its payment schedule.
Mindy Looney, supervisor for the retirement system’s accounting reporting department, told the Education Board that her attempts to work with Haas Hall on the debt were unanswered during the summer months. She disagreed that the school’s check for $ 22, 296 resulted in the school paying its debt in full.
The Education Board put Schoppmeyer on notice that he must resolve the issue with the retirement system and report back to the Education Board at its Sept. 10 meeting. Haas Hall, which is an openenrollment school in Washington County, had 72 students in grades 10-12 during the 2006-07 school year. It was established in 2004, and its charter with the state was renewed earlier this year. The school has had a history of financial problems offset not only in the debt payment plan but contributions from private benefactors including the Schoppmeyer family.
FELDER ACADEMY The board voted 5-2 Monday to keep Pulaski County Special from pulling out of the Felder tridistrict charter school. The board also asked that the Little Rock district, the financial administrator for the school, provide financial reports on the school’s first two years of operation.
James Sharpe, the superintendent of the Pulaski County school district, asked that his district be permitted to withdraw from the operation of the Felder Academy as a way to trim expenses in a system that was removed earlier this year from the state’s fiscal distress program.
The county district’s annual contribution to the school, which takes sixth through 12 th graders assigned to it by the Pulaski County juvenile court system and by school district discipline officers, is about $ 163, 000. About 19 county district students were in the program last year although it was initially reported that only eight students from the county district attended classes there. That low number coupled with the cost prompted the initial concerns about continuing in the tridistrict partnership.
Linda Watson, incoming interim superintendent for the Little Rock School District, and Ken Kirspel, superintendent of the North Little Rock district, told the state board that their districts were committed to continue the program this new school year, which is the final year of the current three-year charter. The North Little Rock district contributes $ 108, 000. The Little Rock district, which administers the program, contributes $ 270, 000 and is planning to absorb the $ 130, 000 it will take to move from a Geyer Springs Road building to the vacant Badgett School in Little Rock. The move is intended to eliminate the need to pay a lease for the school that graduated 11 students last spring.
Board members Naccaman Williams of Bentonville and MaryJane Rebick of Little Rock voted in favor of permitting the county district to withdraw from the tri-district partnership. Rebick said the county district’s perilous financial situation justified the county’s district’s exemption.
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