Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA

Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA:

Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud

STOCKTON — Renew Virtual Academies, a charter school in the New Jerusalem School District, has been dissolved and its roughly 80 students absorbed into other sites amid allegations of fiscal mismanagement, nepotism and enrollment fraud against the school's founder.

Among the charges were that CEO Ellen Ringer hired her son, Deputy Executive Director of Business Services Christopher Walenta, at an annual salary of nearly $100,000 and paid other relatives without disclosing the relationships, New Jerusalem School District officials confirmed.

Ringer and Walenta were forced by trustees of the Renew Virtual Academies board to resign earlier this year after district officials discovered budget discrepancies late last year and looked further into the charter school’s management, New Jerusalem Superintendent David Thoming said. Criminal charges potentially could follow.

“By the first week in January, we realized that they were over-reporting the amount of students they had in order to make their budget work,” he said, adding that Ringer reported enrollment to determine state Average Daily Attendance funding “roughly double” the actual number of about 80 students. The school’s original charter petition projected 200 students in the 2014-15 school year; her son’s director position was not included in the proposal.

“At that point we questioned why she still had on her payroll a chief financial officer who was making a pretty decent amount of money, and we received an email back from her telling us how great this individual was and how indispensable to the organization he has been to start, and the last sentence in the email said, ‘and this has nothing to do with the fact that this is my son,’ ” Thoming said. “And at the point we realized that we had a much bigger problem.”

Ringer, of Rocklin, declined an interview request, responding to questions submitted by email.

“Neither myself nor any of the leadership of RVA did anything illegal or immoral," she said in an email Thursday.

Ringer approached New Jerusalem in 2013 about granting a charter targeting “those students who are really kind of the forgotten students in our community, the teenage mothers, the students that drop out in their senior year, the students that get forgotten by the traditional system,” Thorning said.

In a letter and job offer to Walenta dated March 1, 2014, Ringer wrote that he had been working as an independent contractor for the school and earning $7,500 per month since January 2014, and offered him an annual compensation of $96,000 plus executive-level benefits as well as permission to telecommute for two weeks of each month from his Lone Tree, Colorado, home.

Chase Bank statements listed under the Renew Virtual Academy name, the same account where grant funds were deposited, show charges for airplane tickets, hotels, restaurants and other expenses that Ringer declined to explain when contacted.

In an email Wednesday, Ringer said her son’s salary was “approved independently by RVA's Board of Directors and determined by an outside agency … (that) based his salary on his qualifications and experience.” Walenta’s résumé lists no educational experience, but it does list “guest relations” and “customer service” management positions at the Elephant Bar and Chili’s and a supervisorial position at Sprint for the DeVry University graduate.

Three of the four members of the charter school’s board were appointed by Ringer, state documents show, including a co-founder of the company run by Ringer. A fourth, Delta Charter Schools Superintendent Jeff Tilton, who served as authorizing representative and ran for San Joaquin County superintendent of schools last year, said he never was informed of the relationship between Ringer and her son or other family members and resigned immediately when he found out.

In addition, Walenta’s wife, Corey, was approved for $10,000 for independent contractor work in January 2014 from funds received from the federal Public Charter School Grant Program, a contract agreement shows.

“We found out not only had she hired her son, she had also hired her daughter-in-law, her sister, and there are some payments that we can’t quite figure out to the father of her son — the level of nepotism there is astounding,” Thoming said.  

In addition to state funding of $926,435, Ringer reported in 2014-15 documents filed with the state, Renew Virtual Academy was awarded a $375,000 Public Charter Schools Grant Program Planning and Implementation Grant in September 2013, the California Department of Education reported, and an additional $250,000 loan from the Charter School Revolving Loan Fund Program in 2013-14. Coming in at more than $1.5 million, that’s nearly $20,000 per student, roughly twice what the school should have received for 80 students.

In light of their discoveries, New Jerusalem officials asked the San Joaquin County Office of Education to investigate; the county office has requested an audit from the state’s Fiscal Crisis Management Assessment Team, a quasi-governmental agency created by the Legislature.

“If (that team) suspects illegal activity when they’re done, they’ll refer findings to the D.A.’s Office,” said Zachary K. Johnson, a spokesman for the county office. “When a school closes midyear, it is a disruptive thing,” not just to the students but to their families and teachers."

New Jerusalem tried to keep the school open but realized its finances were “too far upside Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA: