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State auditor declares Phoenix academy lacks key financial records
By John Higgins
and Katie Byard
Beacon Journal staff writers
Published on Wednesday, Apr 30, 2008
Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor said Tuesday that an Akron charter school's financial records are unauditable and gave the school 90 days to get them in order or it will lose its state funding.
The declaration means that the financial records of Phoenix Village Academy of Akron are incomplete, and auditors cannot conduct a routine financial audit, said Steve Faulkner, deputy press secretary for Taylor.
It's the second time that a new state law designed to strengthen oversight of charter schools has been applied, Faulkner said.
That law — a provision in the two-year budget that took effect in July — requires the Ohio Department of Education to halt state aid to charter schools with unauditable records.
Last month, Taylor declared financial records of the Montessori Renaissance Experience charter school in Columbus unauditable.
Phoenix Academy is privately operated but publicly funded. The school is on track to receive about $334,000 in public money this year, according to state records.
Most of that funding is attached to students living in the Akron district with a few students enrolling from Barberton, Manchester, Cuyahoga Falls, Copley-Fairlawn, Springfield and Woodridge.
Phoenix Village had about 65 students enrolled in March.
The school's sponsor — an organization authorized by the state to open and close charter schools — is Ashe Culture Center Inc., a nonprofit organization with offices in Cleveland.
Officials with Ashe could not be reached for comment.
Ashe Culture Center sponsors 15 charter schools around the state that enroll about 3,076 students and are likely to receive almost $20 million in public funds this year, according to education department records.
The state requires sponsors of schools declared unauditable to submit a written plan to the state auditor within 45 days describing efforts to provide the necessary documentation to conduct an audit, Faulkner said.
Phoenix Academy in Akron opened in 2006 and made news in June, when four sixth-graders were given a teaspoon of gin mixed with water in a graduation ceremony purportedly based on an African rite of passage testing truthfulness.
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John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor said Tuesday that an Akron charter school's financial records are unauditable and gave the school 90 days to get them in order or it will lose its state funding.
Get the full article here.
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