Epic Charter Schools board moves to consolidate administration to save millions annually

School board members voted unanimously Wednesday evening on a resolution calling for the merger of the Epic charter school system’s two separate schools — Epic One-on-One and Epic Blended Learning Centers — into a single school by June 30.

“Consolidation will not change anything we do for students,” said Epic Superintendent Bart Banfield. “Consolidation has the potential to provide $4 million to $8 million in cost savings, from fewer administrative fees, technology fees and time savings. We are confident consolidation will be a great change that will ultimately result in a reinvestment into the experiences of both our students and our families.”

Co-founders Ben Harris and David Chaney lost control of Epic in the aftermath of an extremely critical investigative audit by the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s Office, which uncovered years of illegal administrative cost overruns, comingling of funds that should have been kept separate by Epic’s two Oklahoma schools, and the use of Oklahoma taxpayer dollars and taxpayer-funded school employees for a third Epic charter school operating in Southern California.

As previously reported by the Tulsa World, a years-long investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has just been completed, and a district attorney is considering whether criminal charges should be filed. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service has just launched an audit of Epic.

The plan to consolidate Epic’s two Oklahoma schools into a single one sponsored by the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board was publicly unveiled last month.

The bulk of the potential cost savings would come from discontinuing payment of sponsorship fees to Rose State College, which is compensated for its authorization of Epic Blended Learning Centers. That Epic school was established to offer students in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties the flexibility to complete their online learning from home or at an Epic facility.

Epic officials said Wednesday evening that they will be requesting that State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister determine whether consolidation is feasible.

If approved, Epic will form a transition team to assure parents at both schools that services for students remain unchanged and that Epic will have to undergo a “close-out” audit of both its schools’ finances.

The idea to streamline administration and simplify Epic’s governance structure was born of school leaders’ efforts to comply with a deal they cut to stop the statewide virtual board’s plan to terminate Epic One-on-One’s contract over the state audit findings, which also included a host of violations of One-on-One’s contract.

Banfield told the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board at its February meeting that Epic has struggled to come into full compliance with a consent agreement made last year to separate all administrative functions and governance of its two schools.

“Our goal was to ensure the (two schools) operated separately,” Banfield said last month. “But the reality is … we’re not there. We’re not interested in partial compliance — 98% is not good enough; 99% is not good enough. We are committed to being in 100% compliance with the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.”

Asked for a comment on Wednesday, the chair of the statewide virtual board said: “We’ve been dogged about our intentions to get Epic to full compliance. They’ve made significant moves toward that — divested from the (former, for-profit) school management company, commissioned a new board, put in place new internal controls between the two current schools.

“Their consolidation plan would be a big step toward them achieving full compliance,” said Robert Franklin, assistant superintendent at Tulsa Tech.

Franklin referred to the Epic Board of Education members voting to sever ties in May with co-founders Harris and Chaney and Epic Youth Services, the school management company they set up simultaneously with Epic to turn a profit from the charter school system.

Epic’s school board has since completely overhauled its membership to ensure independence and has been working with an outside consultant to identify new members to expand from its original panel of five members to nine.

The board voted to seat two new members on Wednesday evening — Ed Long, chief impact officer at Metafund Impact Investing, and Trevor Hammons, an environmental attorney who previously had a child enrolled at Epic.

That brings the board’s current membership to seven.