NH Attorney General Eyes Financials At Concord Charter School

CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Attorney General's Office has an active review of a Concord charter school after an audit found tens of thousands of dollars in unsupported grant reimbursements and other financial issues with court documents revealing that two connected to the school, its founder and a trustee, also had financial problems and cases in courts around the state.

Kate Giaquinto, the director of communications for the attorney general, confirmed on Thursday that its charitable unit was conducting a review of the school after its charter was surrendered last week in the wake of the discovery of nearly $154,000 in unsupported federal grant reimbursements — including tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses, loans and repayments to family members, and other issues, during a financial audit of the school's federal grant spending.

"Capital City Public Charter School is a charitable organization registered with and regulated by the Charitable Trust Unit," she said. "The Unit is conducting a review of this entity."

No additional information will be provided until the review is complete, Giaquinto added.

ALSO READ:

• Concord School Surrenders Charter After Financial Accounts Probed
• Audit: $154K In Questionable Disbursements At Concord School

According to an audit, conducted by Plodzik & Sanderson PA of Concord, and released to the New Hampshire Department of Education in May 2020, $153,837.98 in "excess/unsupported grant reimbursements" were recorded on the school's accounts drawn from a $223,000 federal grant to get the school started in 2017.

The audit accused Stephanie Alicea, the school's founder, of spending thousands of dollars of the grant money on personal expenses — plane tickets, Uber rides, food, and other charges against the school's accounts, and never reimbursing the expenses. Late last year, she gave the education department $25,000 in an effort to make good on repayment of the funds that had not been paid back or accounted for. When the state board of education set up a charter revocation hearing, Stephanie Alicea relinquished it rather than fight the hearing.

Did you like this story? Invite a friend to subscribe to Patch!

The auditors also found a series of what appear to be payments to family members — including Caroletta Alicea, the founder's mother and vice board of trustee, who is also a state representative from Boscawen and active capital region Democrat. The payments, $14,550, were marked as repayments of loans from officers without explanation or documentation of what the funds were initially used for, the report stated. Another family member received a $7,000 payment with no explanation, the report said.

The revelation of the undocumented payments to the state representative led the NH GOP to start a petition on Wednesday, calling on her to resign.

"These reports are deeply troubling and Rep. Caroletta Alicea must resign," said Stephen Stepanek, the chairman of the party. "For her to allegedly steal nearly $15,000 in federal grants intended for low-income charter school students is a gross insult to hardworking Granite Staters."

Stepanek also questioned her role as the vice chairwoman of the board of trustees where her daughter was the school's top employee.

"What did Rep. Alicea know and when did she know it?," he asked. "How much did Rep. Alicea and her family personally benefit from this theft? The voters of Boscawen deserve better representation in the New Hampshire Legislature and Rep. Alicea must answer these questions while submitting her letter of resignation to the House clerk immediately."

In an email to Patch, Caroletta Alicea refused to comment about the loans.

Stephanie Alicea also would not comment on the issues in the audit but offered thoughts about the public service successes of the school.

Past And Current Financial Issues, Court Cases

Court records around the state show a pattern and history of not paying overdue debts and being sued for payment of services by both Stephanie Alicea and Caroletta Alicea.

Stephanie Alicea has been arrested, faced charges, or been involved in civilian complaints and violations more than two dozen times between 1998 and 2017.

Most of the cases were domestic violence and stalking petitions where Stephanie Alicea was either the defendant or plaintiff. The cases involved four men and a woman, located in several communities in New Hampshire. Criminal charges, complaints, and violations included simple assault, stalking, a dog issue with New Hampshire Fish & Game, violation of a protective order in Merrimack, reckless conduct in Nashua, nonappearance in court in Franklin, and several motor vehicle infractions — including an operating after revocation or suspension charge in 2000. She also sued a man for child support and filed to have her child's name changed in court in 2001.

In July 2017, Stephanie Alicea was also sued in Franklin District Court by the Triangle Credit Union for defaulting on a car loan.

According to the court, she borrowed $16,200 at 3.25 percent interest for a 2009 Mitsubishi Outlander from Auto Wholesalers of Hooksett. She was to make payments of about $280 across 66 monthly installments. But then, she defaulted on the terms of the agreement, and "the collateral was repossessed," according to court documents. The remaining part of the loan was $6,386.11 as well as attorney fees.

A default judgment was made in the case about two months later ordering Stephanie Alicea to pay $7,166.48. She was served with a court notice and it was signed for one, the court stated. But when she failed to show up in court, an arrest warrant was issued. In May 2018, the credit union made an offer for her to pay off the loan in monthly installments of $35 but nearly a year later, she was found in contempt of the default judgment.

A letter issued in December 2019 was returned to the court and she refused to appear in court in February 2020, according to documents. She was eventually served a month later and a show cause hearing was scheduled for April 2020. That hearing was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The credit union's attorney did not return a request for comment about the case.

This case started after Stephanie Alicea founded the school and began drawing from federal funds and later, state adequacy grants, to fund the school's operations as well as during the time period of the audit where she was accused of spending money on personal expenses. Information in the audit was only of the federal grant money, not state adequacy aid, around $535,000 more.

Caroletta Alicea has also been sued in courts for various unpaid liabilities between 1993 and 2019 including two small claims with a law firm.

According to the Hooksett District Court, she was sued by Rymes Heating Oil for not paying a bill of $999.71 in October 2001. In January 2003, the court posted a paid-in-full notice but other information and court documents about the case were not available at post time.

In June 2015, she was also sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC, a repayment debt service usually involving credit cards, for $5,988.16. According to court records, there was a paid-in-full notice in February 2019. But between September and October 2020, other notes were posted about the case. Those notes were also not available before post time.

Caroletta Alicea is also being sued in Franklin District Court by two tenants for $1,640.

The tenants claimed she was their landlord between September 2016 and August 2019 and she never returned their security deposit within 30 days of vacating the property.

"The final inspection/walkthrough proved no damages to premises," one of the tenants wrote in the filing. "We abided by and fulfilled all requirements. We did not receive a proper receipt of security deposit nor the account information where the money was held as requested by right."

Caroletta Alicea, however, countered that the tenants "did not follow through with the verbal and written agreements at the beginning of and through the life of the rental term causing defendant the need to hire an outside contractor." Her claim stated the costs were around $2,610, including a contractor and supplies. Caroletta Alicea also claimed they gave "an improper amount notice to move."

The tenants filed a counterclaim saying there was "not enough room for their children combined" in the home and that they paid for "half of a basement finish" but that cost was not included.

According to a court official, many non-criminal cases have been put on hold due to the coronavirus.

Caroletta Alicea is also the co-founder and vice president of Granite Bay Care Inc., since 2007, which operates in Maine, and CEO and founder of Granite Bay Connections Inc. since the 1990s. According to online records, the Granite Bay Care has been sued for fair labor standards and other issues in state and federal courts.

On Thursday, Gov. Chris Sununu released his executive budget summary and charter schools were at the heart of the education component after a long, partisan fight over $46 million in federal grants to be used as seed money for new public charter schools. The primary focus of the news charters will be assisting at-risk children and many students and parents who want other options outside of public schools.

Sununu's press office this week, however, did not respond to a series of questions concerning the Capital City Public Charter School case — including whether tighter monetary regulations on charter schools were needed or background checks on people trying to start charter schools. The press office also did not return a question concerning whether Caroletta Alicea should resign.

Caroletta Alicea was elected to the Merrimack 8 state representative seat in 2020 with 882 votes — a little less than 200 votes over incumbent Robert Forsythe, a Republican, who withdrew from the race after being accused felony second-degree assault and two domestic violence-simple assault charges after an incident in Boscawen in June 2020 — an accusation of strangulation of a woman at her home. Rick Devoid, a write-in candidate and independent, received 296 votes. Sununu and others called on Forsythe to resign, leading to a win for Caroletta Alicea. She also served in the House between 2013 and 2019. When the seat was the Merrimack 6 floterial seat, she placed 11th out of 12 candidates in 2010.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel.