California Schools Audit Shows Excessive Spending And

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Superintendent of Instruction for the California schools, Jack Oonnell, initiated an audit more than a year ago into the fiscal concerns of the Options for Youth and Opportunities for Learning (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run but funded by the state.

The OYO California schools serve students who have dropped out of the traditional high schools. They currently have about 15,000 students in 40 storefront locations across the state. These California schools students do most of their work at home, meeting with teachers twice a week. According to state records, student achievement test and high school exit exam scores are above average, as compared to other alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times article of August 10th, only 11 percent of OYO students graduated during the 2003-2004 school year. The remainder of students that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools.

The California schoolsaudit was conducted by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, who concluded their analysis and presented their findings in a report that was released in August 2006. The audit cites accounting defects, overpayments by the state, conflicts of interest, nepotism, excessive compensation, and mixing private business concerns with public schools.

The OYO was founded and still operated by John and Joan Hall, former teachers from Hollywood High School. They have fully cooperated with the California schoolsaudit, but dispute most of the findings.

Some examples from the audit report are:

ccounting Defects and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their teachers as 1.92 full-time positions. Their spokesperson, Stevan Allen, stated that this is a common practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a legitimate method for compensating school staff for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent Oonnell believes teachers should be counted only as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, citing that traditional California schools teachers spend much less time working each year than those at OYO. However, the auditors believed the 1.92 amount is inflated. This example, alone, accounts for more than half of the $57 million overpayment.

Additionally, the report noted several questionable expenses. One example of unrestrained spending, given by the Times was an $18,000 staff party held at Disneyland. Allen defended that event as an attempt at relationship building between staff members, who are scattered across the state. He noted that the costs was less than $50 per staff member.

onflicts of Interest and Mixing Private Business with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and operate several private businesses that sell materials and services to schools. The Times noted that the Options in OYO was the nonprofit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit calls this practice and setup into question.

xcessive Compensation. The audit also questions the combined salaries for the Halls, which is $600,000 annually. The report states that it may be excessive for the amount of time the couple actually works.

epotism. The Halls created a separate charity with $10.8 million of the California schoolsfunding, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their daughter, Jamie Hall. Little money has been spent toward education thus far.

The Halls contend that they previously had requested guidance on their operation from the California schools many times, but never received any response. Thus, they tried to follow California schools requirements as best they could with their understanding of the policies. Even Oonnell conceded that none of the cited practices are illegal.

The audit recommends the California schools should attempt to recover the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. Oonnell has sent the report to the state attorney general office for review and any necessary action.

Candidate Ford Proposes New School Site For Chicago Schools

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She is an outstanding human body artist, she is has the artistic dayshare and the artistic value artist very much We now saw is she isworking the several pictures.
The human body art - beautiful woman artist pastes the chart
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[Искусствоо человеческого тела - красивейший художник женщинынаклеивает диаграмму]
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The old Brach plant is located at 401 N. Cicero, just north of Lake Street, in a community that has seen many of its Chicago schools closed and others placed on academic probation. The 30-plus-acre property has been vacant for three years.

LaShawn Ford is the owner of Ford Desired Real Estate and candidate for state representative of the 8th district. The democrat has an ambitious plan to use the Brach property for a new school.

In June of 2006, Ford convinced Chicago schoolsofficials to join him in a walkthrough of his plan at the site. Though he had prior permission for the walkthrough with the Chicago schoolsofficials, there was no one present to give them access through the 30-foot fence that surrounds the property. As with most politicians, Ford improvised by driving through a hole in the fencing to gain access.

Chicago schoolsofficials found that the property was close to Chicago Green Line, and it had some great parking space. Ford emphasized that a school located there could cater to many students from many areas of the city Chicago schoolsbuses could transport students in from different districts. The Chicago schoolsofficials saw that the location and amount of property could attract a multitude of students with diverse economical, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Ford further pointed out that the Chicago schools had recently invested $30 million into Austin High School for Renaissance 2010 upgrades. He noted that had they foregone those renovations, they could had invested in a new school at the Brach location that would provide much more to the Chicago schoolsstudents over the long term.

The biggest problem facing Ford ambitious plans for the Chicago schools is zoning. The old Brach plant sits in the city Protected Manufacturing District. That means that sites within the district can be used only for industrial development. When presented with other plans in the past, the city has been reluctant to rezone the area for commercial or residential development.

The second problem is financing. The property currently is listed at the Paine/Wetzel INCOR International web site for $10 million. The Chicago schoolsofficials have suggested that the best scenario would be for a donor to purchase the Brach property and give it to the Chicago schools for further development. Even this, of course, is contingent on whether or not the Chicago schools have enough surplus funds to build the school. The estimated cost of building is from $20 to $40 million. Of course, the perfect solution would be for donors to cover the cost of building, as well.

As it currently stands, Ford proposal is being considered by the Chicago schools. The Chicago schoolsofficials stated that further study on the project would be needed before any decisions could be made.

Los Angeles Schools Strongly Opposed To Takeover By Mayor Vi

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There is currently legislation AB 1381 in the state legislature that, if passed, will give the okay to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to take over a subset of the Los Angeles schools. Recently, the mayor school reform team announced its latest round of changes to the bill in order to sidestep some possible problems to it passing.

Last month, according to the Los Angeles TimesAugust 8, 2006 article, Los Angeles Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry F. Miller made certain speculations about the bill. He believes, if the bill is passed, the following may occur:

Some power could shift from the City Council to Villaraigosa;
Additional costs may be incurred by the cities that are served by the Los Angeles schools; and
These same cities, as well as the Council of Mayors, could incur certain legal liabilities.

Legal responsibilities and costs could shift with the power, since the bill gives responsibility for the subset of Los Angeles schools directly to Villaraigosa, who dominates the Council of Mayors with an 80 percent vote. The Council of Mayors consists of Villaraigosa, representatives from the County Board of Supervisors, and representatives of 27 other cities that are served by the Los Angeles schools.

The recently announced changes to the bill are to placate the officials and representatives of the 27 other cities concerning Miller speculations, as well as protect the legislation from being defeated due to criticisms from opponents who are aligned with the Los Angeles schools officials, who are strongly opposed to the takeover.

The new language added to the bill does the following:

Budget administration for the Los Angeles schools will remain with the City Councils of the cities served by the school district, as it currently stands. This eliminates the possibility of additional costs being incurred by any of the cities served.

Responsibility for any lawsuits or legal issues will remain with the Los Angeles schools, even though Villaraigosa will be making most of the decisions. This ensures that the County of Los Angeles and the cities involved will be held blameless.

The takeover of the Los Angeles schools subset is now likened to a school district authorizing a charter school. It is hoped by Villaraigosa team that this language will sidestep the state constitution provision that requires public schools to be overseen by established school systems.

Kevin Reed, general counsel for the Los Angeles schools, was quite critical of the bill new language, especially concerning legal responsibility. He also said the comparison of Villaraigosa takeover to a charter school, which was developed by Villaraigosa legal advisor Thomas Saenz, was erroneous. Charter schools submit to more oversight than will Villaraigosa, if the bill becomes law.

Reed also pointed out a conflict of interest for Saenz, who is also an appointed board member of the County Office of Education. A spokesperson for the mayor said Saenz would resign, if the bill becomes law.

Villaraigosa has some backers for his bill, which will soon be reviewed by the legislature. The bill, however, has many questionable provisions in its language and many strongly opposed to it. Opposition comes not only from the Los Angeles schools officials, but also from many of the city representatives on the Council of Mayors, who already see Villaraigosa controlling too much of their concerns.