Parent company of OC charter school under federal investigation

ANAHEIM - The parent company of an Orange County charter school is under state and federal investigation, again, according to reports published recently in the Tulsa World.

The school, Epic Charter School of Anaheim is one of several schools owned and managed by Epic Youth Services LLC, a for-profit company headquartered in a private house in a residential neighborhood of Oklahoma City.

According to the Tulsa World report the school and company’s operations are under scrutiny by both state and federal officials.

Confirmation of the inquiry was confirmed by an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) spokesperson who was quoted by long-time Tulsa World journalist Andrea Eger as saying, “There are no additional details to release, as this is an active investigation.”

The company operates charters in at least three states – Oklahoma, California, Arkansas – and has prepared charter petitions in at least two others.

In Oklahoma Epic owns a statewide virtual school as well operating a network of ‘blended delivery’ learning centers that are open to students both online and in-person. According to Eger’s reporting these schools “have drawn 10,000 new students and tens of millions of dollars in state funding this year alone.”

The report quotes the charter as having already drawn more than $100 million in state funding during the current fiscal year. According to documents available on their website the Anaheim location has a budget of more than $5 million this year alone.

One of the issues apparently under investigation is whether the schools are or have been enrolling students who are already actively enrolled in private schools – a practice known as ‘concurrent enrollment’ and specifically outlawed by California’s charter school laws (EdCode Section 47602b).

Staff members at the Anaheim location declined to deny that concurrent enrollments occurred at the site, referring all queries for this article to Executive Director Paul MacGregor.

Mr. MacGregor, school Principal Sonja Clause and the chairman of the school’s governing board, Troy Medley all declined repeated requests for comment for this story.

Although the investigation is apparently focused on the school’s Oklahoma headquarters, the involvement of federal investigators raises the possibility that questions may soon be asked in Orange County as well.

An issue a spokesperson for the City of Anaheim was being ‘researched’ concerned the school’s right to operate in the city. Although the school opened in 2016 the spokesperson was unable to trace any business license application for the organization.

What’s more, a simple internet search of the names of the two founders of the charter network, Ben Harris and David Chaney, brings a plethora of potentially negative information to light.

According to a 2010 report in The Oklahoman, the state’s most read newspaper, Harris and Chaney had previously worked for the Florida Department of Children and Families in 2003. In July 2004, an investigation there found that Harris (no relation to this author) had accepted “trips, dinners and other favors from companies looking to contract with the social services agency.”

Harris resigned and a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement ensued.

Although the Oklahoma school sites opened in 2010, by 2013, according to the Tulsa World report, then-Governor of Oklahoma Mary Fallin had already requested an investigation into allegations of fraud.

The investigation didn’t stop the school’s plan for expansion, however, but the school’s first application for a California charter was rejected outright by the Anaheim Elementary School District. As is their right though the school then appealed that decision to the County Department of Education (OCDE), and in a split-decision the County Board approved their application 4-1.

The Board of the state Department of Education (CDE) then approved OCDE’s decision and the school opened September 5th, 2016. Epic was later formerly accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

Although readily publicly available, it’s unclear at this time whether any of the above information was proffered to, or considered by, any of those bodies prior to the Anaheim Blvd. site opening.

Spokespersons for CDE and OCDE have thus far declined comment on what was known, and when.

A spokesperson for WASC, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss such matters and had no working knowledge of this particular accreditation, confirmed that a school’s organizational history and qualifications should have been factored in to an assessment of that school’s ability to deliver quality curriculum and instruction.

Karl Yoder, Co-founder and CFO at Delta Managed Solutions, a Sacramento-based company that provides data management service to Epic and other charters, also declined comment for this story.

Despite that $5 million budget, documents on the school’s website claim that Epic’s “greatest needs are to continue focusing on academic achievement,” a claim perhaps well borne out by data on the state’s school dashboard website (caschooldashboard.org).

Less than 60% of the charter’s senior class are shown to have graduated last year, compared to 89% of Orange County seniors and 83% of seniors across the state as a whole. Just 11% of those Epic graduates satisfied UC/CSU university entry course requirements.

The California Charter School Association (CCSA) has declined to confirm whether Epic is a member, and declined to comment on whether CCSA are offering the school advice or support.

Epic Youth Services declined to respond to several requests to comment for this story.

This week the school's doors remained closed.