CLEVELAND -- Three Northeast Ohio charter schools -- Arts Academy, Arts Academy West and Marcus Garvey Academy -- will have their state funding cut off because they haven't straightened out their financial records.
The schools were declared unauditable Nov. 3. Under state law, they had 90 days "to make reasonable efforts and continuing progress to rectify the condition of their records and bring them into an auditable condition,"State Auditor Dave Yost and Chief Deputy Auditor Robert Hinkle said in a letter Friday.
"Unfortunately, they have not taken this action."
The letter was sent to the Ohio Department of Education, which will stop all payments to the schools immediately, as the law requires, said spokesman Patrick Gallaway. That would include federal money funneled through the Education Department.
The schools will have to use their reserves or other sources of revenue until the records are in shape to be audited and state money can be released, he said.
In the meantime, the auditor's office will continue to work with the three schools, which are in Cleveland and Lorain, said spokeswoman Carrie Bartunek.
This is the first time the auditor has sent such a notification to the Education Department since the law on unauditable charter schools took effect in 2007, she said. The goal is to protect taxpayers' dollars used by charter schools (officially known as community schools in Ohio,) which are public but operate independent of districts.
Auditors also will continue working with two other Cleveland charters -- Elite Academy of the Arts and Lion of Judah Academy -- that also were found unauditable Nov. 3 but are making enough progress with their records to avoid the sanction.
All five schools are sponsored by a Cleveland nonprofit called the Ashe Culture Center. Jorethia Chuck, who heads Ashe's sponsorship effort, said she believes all the necessary documents have been turned over to the auditors.
"I've been assured by the school treasurers that the auditors have what they need," she said. "It's a pretty lengthy process, but they're moving along to completion."
Alexis Rainbow, who heads the Arts Academy in Lorain and Arts Academy West in Cleveland , said the former treasurer - who was let go at the end of June -- was supposed to hand over all the requested records.
"That was our expectation," she said.
Alexandria Johnson Boone, who founded Marcus Garvey Academy and is listed as the deputy head of school, did not return phone calls.
Marcus Garvey, located in Cleveland, also is in trouble with the state over questionable test results. A leap in scores last year earned the school an excellent rating, but each page of its online report card is stamped "Results under review by the Ohio Department of Education."
A scoring company found that a high percentage of answers had been erased and changed from wrong to right, but Ashe concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing and considered the case closed.
However, Chuck said on Friday that more information turned up and the academy has asked the Education Department to void the scores. She also said the principal, Ross Cockfield, is no longer with the academy, but referred all further questions to Boone.
On Tuesday, Cockfield confirmed that he is no longer with the school but declined to answer any questions.
Gallaway, from the Education Department, said he could not comment on the test issue until there is a resolution.
Ashe also is having its own battle with the Education Department, which has been trying to take away its sponsorship authority since December 2009 - primarily because of financial issues.
Gallaway said a partial hearing in February centered on whether Ashe has the required $500,000 in assets and demonstrated record of fiscal responsibility. Once the independent hearing officer issues a report and recommendations, Ashe's fate will be decided by the state school board, he said.
Ashe Culture Center has been a charter school sponsor since 2004 and currently oversees nine schools.
Last year, its schools enrolled almost 1,200 students and received more than $8.7 million from the state. Sponsors get up to 3 percent of the schools' state funding to monitor academics and finances.
Chuck's husband, Kwa David Whitaker, previously led Ashe's sponsorship work, but Chuck said he resigned in December to pursue other opportunities. Chuck, whose background is in school psychology, said a new co-chair is being sought to work with her.
"We're trying to resolve everything," Chuck said. "Some of the things that have been said are pretty rough, but we're just trying to change and get things moving in a more positive direction."
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