K12> Fla. School Charged With Fraud For Hiring Out Students

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**************************************************************From: "Bonnie 
Bracey" <BBracey@xxxxxxx>
To: <K12ADMIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 10:26:04 EDT
Subject: Fla. School Charged With Fraud For Hiring Out Students
 
School May Be Forced To Repay Education Funds, Plus Fines
POSTED: 2:30 pm EDT April 21, 2004

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A charter school has been charged with criminal fraud for
allegedly hiring out students with academic or behavior problems to work on
state road projects when they were supposed to be in class.
Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar accused Escambia Charter School on
Tuesday of accepting up to $140,000 from one state agency to educate 140 at-risk
students and $250,000 from another for putting them to work on such jobs as
cleaning rights of way.
If convicted, the school could be forced to repay the state education funds
plus fines. School officials deny wrongdoing. Students allegedly spent only an
hour a day in school Monday through Thursday but were given classroom credit
for road work the rest of each day, according to court records. State law
requires students to spend 25 hours a week in class. Charter schools are 
privately
run but get public money.
The Florida Department of Transportation paid the school $16.25 per hour for
the student labor. The school then allegedly paid the students $10 an hour and
a supervisor $11 an hour, pocketing profits of about $40,000 a year.
School president Stan Callender and principal Jerome Chisholm were not
charged individually, but Edgar alleged they submitted false attendance records,
course schedules and grade reports to obtain the state education dollars.
Callender denied the fraud charge but said he has been working with the
Florida Department of Education to redo the program and bring it into compliance
with state regulations.

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