Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CHARTER SCHOOL WOES: Three more schools put on notice

Team Academy, Odyssey, Keystone have 90 days to comply or risk closure

Three Clark County charter schools have jeopardized their status by failing to comply with state laws and regulations that cover employee benefits and the reporting of student information.

The Clark County Team Academy, the Odyssey Charter School and Keystone Academy in Sandy Valley have been put on notice by the Clark County School District to correct their shortcomings within 90 days or risk closure. The district is the local oversight authority for charter schools, which operate as independent public schools.

Team Academy, a long-distance learning high school in its first year, owes the state retirement system about $74,000 in back payments for its employees. Both Odyssey and Keystone have not yet met the state law regarding the reporting of student information.

This brings the number of Clark County charter schools cited for noncompliance to four. The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy was put on notice last week for failing to meet state laws regarding teacher performance reviews, teacher licensing and the reporting of student information.

"We're in the process of correcting the problem," Team Academy Principal Frank Mitchell said. "Our budget is very tight, but we'll take care of this."

Mitchell said the missed payments into the state PERS system were an oversight that happened because of a last-minute change to the Team Academy's service plan. Last fall, two academies were set to open, one in Clark and one in Washoe County. Approval of the Washoe County Team Academy charter was delayed by the Washoe County School District, Mitchell said. So in the interim, the Clark County distance-learning campus agreed to pick up the enrollment of students to the north, which required the services of 10 staff members.

Mitchell said that he assumed at the time that the Washoe Team Academy already had arranged for PERS, which turned out not to be the case. The mistake was missed until it was brought to his attention as a compliance issue.

"We're supporting twice the number of staff that we thought we would have," Mitchell said. "But we didn't want to turn any student away."

Team now has about 500 students. It's a virtual school that provides a high school program to students with home computers.

Charter schools such as Team operate under state legislation passed seven years ago. They receive the same level of state per-pupil funding that goes to regular public schools. However, although they are monitored by the Nevada Department of Education and local school district officials, charter schools operate as independent programs, with the freedom to establish their own program focuses.

Odyssey Charter School, like Team, is a technology-based program that allows students to attend most classes at home. The Keystone Academy, in rural Sandy Valley, serves students who might otherwise drop out of school. Both schools are under the gun for failing to meet state requirements for the electronic reporting of student information.

Odyssey Executive Director Craig Butz said that although the cost of the equipment needed to comply with reporting protocol is covered by a state grant, it takes a full-time staff member to enter all the required information. In Odyssey's case, Butz said the school will be caught up before the 90 day notice is up.

"It's attendance, grades, classes," Butz said. "In our case, we have to complete 72 data fields for 1,200 students. We've hired a temporary full-time person to do it."

A Keystone spokesperson was not available for comment. Craig Kadlub, who acts as the Clark County School District's liaison to charter schools, said the state has been notified of the compliance issues.

"As of today, we have almost all our student information completed," Butz said. "We still have to add scheduling and attendance, and once that's done, we'll be 100 percent online."