Re: “Mielke: Unfair Edges for Charter Schools”
Dateline Woodland Hills — Embattled El Camino Real Charter High School “strongly believes it has cured” all violations alleged by the Los Angeles Unified School District, including fiscal mismanagement, according to the school’s formal response to claims by the district.
The school’s governing board said it has taken “decisive action to remedy the identified violations” outlined in LAUSD’s “notice of violations,” — the first step to potentially revoking the Woodland Hills school’s charter — that was issued by the School Board last month.
The board of El Camino Real Alliance, a nonprofit corporation that operates the school, has also “put in place mechanisms to ensure that such items do not happen again.” That includes revising its fiscal policies to prohibit the personal use of school-issued credit cards and buying alcohol with school funds, according to a Friday letter signed by an attorney representing the school and posted online this week.
“I hope that the school district can see that we are diligently trying to meet or exceed the goals that they have set for the modifications of our bylaws to adequately supervise the budget we are entrusted with,” said El Camino Real Alliance board member Scott Silverstein, who joined the school’s seven-member governing board in July.
In addition, the El Camino board took undisclosed action — but not termination — against at least one employee earlier this month, Melanie Horton, a business director at the school, said in an email. Disciplinary action can range from a warning to firing an employee, according to board members.
LAUSD’s Charter School Division, in a statement, said it’s now reviewing the more than 400 pages of documents the school sent to the district last week and is “evaluating the adequacy” of the school’s response before making its recommendation to the Board. Out of at least six charter schools that have received a notice of violations from LAUSD in the last three years, only one has had its charter revoked.
Meanwhile, Mr. Silverstein said Tuesday that he believes El Camino’s Executive Director David Fehte — who has come under fire for seemingly liberal spending of school-issued credit cards — is not fit for his position.
“The executive director’s job is to provide guidance and oversight of the staff enabling them to fulfill their mission, which is to educate the students. The students are the reason we are all involved,” Mr. Silverstein said. “In my opinion, I believe the executive director lacks the proper judgment to continue his role.”
Mr. Silverstein said he doesn’t question Mr. Fehte’s commitment to students or their well-being but rather “his ability to provide a workplace atmosphere where students and teachers can excel.” He said he also has issues with Marshall Mayotte, the school’s chief business officer, for what he described as “lack of adequate oversight.”
Neither Mr. Fehte nor a school spokesman immediately responded to email requests for comment Tuesday. Several teachers and parents at the El Camino board meeting called for the firing or disciplining of Messrs. Fehte and Mayotte, while others, including El Camino teacher Fluke Fluker, called Mr. Fehte a “stand-up guy” and “a man with character and integrity” and said LAUSD’s allegations were politically motivated.
L.A. Unified staffers have alleged “numerous seemingly exorbitant personal and/or improper expenses” were charged by school administrators and processed without scrutiny from November 2013 to December 2015 and argued that at least two updates made to fiscal policies since October have been inadequate. Officials at El Camino, which converted to an independent charter in 2011 and receives about $32 million a year in government funds, contend the district’s notice of violations contains dozens of errors and argue most of the credit-card charges were for business purposes. While some “inadvertent personal” charges totaling thousands of dollars were made, school officials say they have provided evidence of reimbursed checks in its response to the district.
The matter came under scrutiny following a Daily News investigation published in May into credit-card charges made by Mr. Fehte and other administrators, including more than $15,500 at Monty’s Prime Steaks & Seafood in 2014 and 2015 in Woodland Hills, several first-class plane tickets and hotel rooms at more than $350 a night. Among Mr. Fehte’s charges was a $95 bottle of wine at Monty’s.
To better protect the school, Silverstein, who served on the Woodland Hills Warner Center Neighborhood Council for 13 years, said he believes the El Camino governing board should expand from seven to at least 15 members to include more individuals with “professionally diverse” backgrounds.
Regarding action taken against at least one employee, El Camino Real Alliance Board President Jonathan Wasser said Tuesday that after reviewing all the evidence, including a report by the outside firm Oracle Investigations Group commissioned in June, he believes “the board as a whole needs to take much stronger action” against certain employees. But he said he and Mr. Silverstein appear to be “in complete opposition” to other members on the El Camino board.
Both Messrs. Silverstein and Wasser say they are in favor of releasing the report by Oracle, which examined credit-card spending and reimbursement policies, to the public but that has not happened. Two other board members did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.
This story originated in the Los Angeles Daily News
