I’m getting a few other responses to MN2020’s hatchet job on charter schools; I’ll have some results tomorrow.

But in the meantime, I got this email from a charter school director and teacher from Greater Minnesota who’s been reading this series.  The teacher notes:

It’s weird that I’m sending you this email, because most of the time (besides for the charter school issue), I pretty much disagree with you.  (Sorry, but true!)

Having had my kids in charter schools in the city, I’ve noticed that the vast majority of other parents would probably feel the same!  Which is why MN2020’s response to the criticiism of their report – chalking it up to a conservative attack on education – was so very dumb.

And the teacher asked:

Please feel free to use any of these examples if you wish, but PLEASE PLEASE do not say it’s from our school.   Please don’t list us or even mention [the region of the state the school is in].  (We’re the only one [in our area] and I don’t want any attention drawn to us.)  We have had to really struggle against the “powers that be” around here, and at the present time it’s best to just stay low, do our own thing, and continue growing.

I’ve heard this from not a few charter school teachers who’ve talked with me.

The teacher addresses the MN2020 report:
:

Hi Mr. Berg:

I am a teacher/director at a small charter school in [a part of, and town in, Greater Minnesota].

I grew up [in this region] taught in traditional public high school here, and saw a need for something different in our area.  We don’t have any private high schools [in this region] , and again, before us, there were no charters, either.  Our school is truly, truly public – our kids range academically just as in our local traditional districts.  We know we can’t, nor do we want to, limit enrollment to certain groups of kids.  We do have a considerably higher special education student percentage and a higher free/reduced lunch student population than the traditional local districts.  We also seem to get some of the “really, really smart” kids, too.   Overall, we’re just a mix of kids and families who were looking for something different – for many reasons.  We pride ourselves on really trying to meet the needs of the individual kid.

The teacher notes when the school started, and with how many kids; I will redact that to help conceal its identity, but suffice to say that at a time when traditional school districts’ enrollments are stagnang and dropping, the teacher’s charter school is booming.

I have been following your series as you discuss the recent MN2020 report about charter school audit findings.  We were listed in the report.

You said you are researching charters, and I would like to share with you the (4) audit findings we received during [the period covered in the audit].

Finding #1:  Segregation of Duties

During [the period audited], we had NO staff.  No employees.  All volunteer board members, start-up director (me) and parents.  We had NO payroll.  I had another full-time job in a local district (another story) and worked on charter school start-up stuff at night.  Yes, it was hard to segregate duties.  (To disclose, we did have this same audit finding [the following year] and may still have it in FY09, but we’re getting better.)

This is not at all uncommon among charters; there might be limited segregation of duties, but then there is also extremely limited staff and money.

Finding #2:  Preparation of Financial Statements

Our auditing firm prepared our official financial report.  We wrote less than 100 checks and spent less than $44,000 in the entire fiscal year!  We had sort of a lame business service provider (another story), and he just let the auditing firm put together the financials.  The next year, we put our own together.  (We did not have this finding in our FY08 audit.)

But the MN2020 report treats this as if it’s a big black mark pointing inevitably to embezzlement and the defrauding of taxpayers.

Finding #3:  Payment of Invoices

This finding occurred because we paid some bills more than 45 days after we received the invoice.  Again, we had no paid staff; I was teaching full time in another district and doing this part-time at night.  I realize it’s important to pay bills, which we did, but a few went more than 45 days.  We did pay them all, and all of our vendors still work with us.  (We did not have this finding in our FY08 audit.)

And if we closed down every non-profit that takes tax money and then pays a few bills late, we wouldn’t have many non-profits, would we?

Finding #4:  Claims declaration  (this is the most dumb)

Actual audit wording, “Minnesota Statute 471.6161 requires that each person claiming payment from the Academy make the following written declaration:  “I declare under penalties of law that this account claim  or demand is just and correct and that no part of it has been paid.”       Our last audit finding was because we didn’t stamp the back of our checks with that statement.   Who knew?   After that, we got a stamper.  (And, we did not have this finding in our FY08 audit.)

Whew.  I’m amazed the FBI hasn’t raided the place.

One of our [findings for one of the years] was that we didn’t have proper collateral on our money in the bank.  None of us have ever had over $100,000 in the bank, not even for one day ….   We just didn’t know we had to fill out anything if our school bank account ever held more than $100,000 (which, 95% of the time it doesn’t anyway ….)   Our auditor even told me that was more of an error by the local bank than by us.  Anyways, now we have more than the FDIC insurance – we had to fill out some paperwork.

And that’s it.  Four errors that don’t even rise to the level of “niggling” in the grand scheme of things.

The teacher concludes:

So those are the “big” findings we had in FY07…Yes, we have audit findings.  Yes, we learn from them.  No, no one is stealing money or being bad.  I just feel we didn’t all deserve to be labeled as such.

I’d love to hear from more charter school people who’ve run afoul of MN2020.  Write me at “feedbackinthedark@yahoo.com”.
Still on tap for this series; a conversation with the State Auditor, some questions for MN2020, and some conclusions.