El Camino Real Charter Shakes Up Leadership Amid Reports of Fiscal Mismanagement

WOODLAND HILLS, CA -- The governing board of El Camino Real Charter High School says Marshall Mayotte will no longer be the school’s chief business officer by the end of December and that Executive Director David Fehte is taking a cut in both salary and length of contract.

A June expose in the Los Angeles Daily News showed that Fehte had moonlighted as an NBA scout, but billed the school for his airfare and lodging as a scout.

A "letter to the community" was posted online following a 4-hour closed session meeting of the El Camino Real Alliance board in which possible "discipline/dismissal/release" of one or more employees was discussed amid a probe by the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

"Effective December 31, 2016 or earlier, Marshall Mayotte will no longer be ECRA’s Chief Business Officer," said the statement signed by El Camino Real Alliance Board President Jonathan Wasser and Fethe said. "The board sincerely appreciates Mr. Mayotte’s contributions to ECRCHS. During the next 90 days, the board will be recruiting and selecting new staff."

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It was not immediately clear if Mayotte resigned, agreed to take a buyout or was terminated. The El Camino board said it anticipates splitting the chief business officer position into two roles -- one focused on ECRA finances and the other on charter school operations -- to create "multiple layers of oversight," the Daily News reported.

The El Camino board hired an outside firm in June for an estimated $20,000 to investigate school financial statements and reimbursement policies after the Los Angeles Unified School District issued a warning to the school last October about potential violations. Since then, the district’s Board of Education has issued a "notice of violations" -- the first step to potentially revoking the school’s charter -- over what it has called "fiscal mismanagement” and other issues, according to the newspaper.

Fehte has agreed to restructure his contract, resulting in a cut in base salary and contract term as well as the establishment of "performance benchmarks," the governing board said without providing details."Mr. Fehte is fully committed to taking all necessary steps to restore any lost confidence in the Charter School and in himself as Executive Director."

City News Service