Poteau Daily News

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2019

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The Eufaula Indian Journal

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 Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise

CHARTER SCHOOLS

Nov Fourth
teacher sues
29

2019

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Epic over
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termination
By Nuria Martinez-Keel
The Oklahoman

A fourth teacher has filed

a lawsuit against Epic Char-
ter Schools, alleging she
was fired after objecting to
questionable enrollment
practices.
Ryan Aispuro said Epic
terminated her employment
“because she resisted pres-
sure to manipulate Epic’s
truancy standards.” The
lawsuit was filed Tuesday in
Oklahoma County District
Court, requesting at least
$75,000 in damages.
Aispuro described simi-
lar circumstances as three
other teachers who sued the
virtual charter school. One of
the teachers, Noelle Waller,
dropped her lawsuit Nov. 14.
“We have no comment as
this matter is under litiga-
tion,” said Shelly Hickman,
Epic’s assistant superinten-
dent of communications.
“However, we are pleased
one of these suits has
already been dismissed.
We are confident and eager
to present our case regard-
ing this former, disgruntled
employee.”
Aispuro said Epic pres-
sured her to strictly enforce
attendance and truancy

SEE EPIC, A3

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Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
EPIC performance would’ve
had a negative effect on
From Page A1 bonuses for those above
her in Epic’s hierarchy,
she said. Aispuro’s bonus
standards on students also would have been
with below-average affected.
academic ability but not Epic, the state’s larg-
against students with est virtual charter school,
stronger performance. offers significant bonuses
The lawsuit states she to teachers based on
questioned this practice student retention, test
multiple times. scores, attendance and
Students who are ability to move on to the
marked absent for 10 next grade level.
consecutive school days Aispuro said Epic fired
are dropped from enroll- her June 18, 2018, before
ment, and the Oklahoma she could collect her
State Department of annual bonus July 1. She
Education considers was hired May 4, 2017.
them as non-full-aca- Her principal
demic-year students, or approached her with
NFAY. Students marked alleged complaints from
as NFAY don’t count two parents reporting
against their school’s a lack of communica-
overall test scores, even tion from Aispuro. The
if they re-enroll. teacher provided text
Poor student messages and emails
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
showing she attempted
to contact those fami-
Deskin reported this to
his principal and said he
hired in July 2017.
Waller and Shauna
$75,000 in damages.
The Oklahoma State
lies, but she was fired wouldn’t label students Atchley both made simi- Bureau of Investigation
regardless, according to as truant unless they lar allegations when they also alleged Epic manip-
the lawsuit. actually were. sued Epic on Aug. 30. ulated its enrollment by
In a lawsuit filed Oct. “(The principal) Both said they objected forcing students into
25, Jason Deskin alleged responded that this was to manipulating enroll- truancy. These students
Epic classified students just what had to be done, ment and were fired would be re-enrolled
as truant when it became implying that Deskin was before they could receive after they were classi-
apparent they wouldn’t expected to fall in line,” bonuses. fied as NFAY, according
pass state tests. the lawsuit states. Hickman said Waller to a search warrant filed
Deskin said he Deskin was fired after and Atchley were in district court.
overheard an Epic admin- being accused of nega- “disgruntled former The OSBI is inves-
istrator talking about tively affecting his employees hoping to
tigating allegations of
maximizing bonuses with performance at Epic by profit from what they
embezzlement and rack-
other teachers during a being the primary substi- perceive to be the issue
eteering by Epic and its
break at a professional tute teacher at Lexington of the day.”
development meeting. Public Schools. Deskin “I cannot comment co-founders.
The administrator told said he only substitute about personnel issues, Epic has denied any
them the best way is for taught a few times, and but I can tell you that wrongdoing.
teachers to figure out his principal at Epic was these employees are no — The Oklahoman
which students won’t aware of it. longer employed with is a sister publica-
perform well on state His termination in us, and for good reason,” tion of the Bartlesville
tests and then remove June 2018 came a month Hickman said in a state- Examiner-Enterprise
them from their rolls by before Epic would have ment in the days after through Gannett. For
manipulating truancy to pay him his annual they filed their lawsuits. more content from The
standards, according to bonus on July 1, the law- Deskin and Atchley Oklahoman, visit www.
the lawsuit. suit states. He had been are all suing for at least oklahoman.com-
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Enid News & Eagle
Most virtual charter schools’ students don’t graduate
By Ben Felder
The Frontier
Dressed in blue robes with
gold-colored stoles around their
neck, graduates of Epic Virtual
Charter School walked across the
stage at the Mabee Center arena in
Tulsa earlier this year, shaking hands
with school officials as they were
handed a high school diploma.
“This is just the beginning of
the next chapter of your lives,”
David Chaney, superintendent and
co-founder of Epic, told the students
before yellow and blue balloons
fell from the rafters, signifying the
culmination of hard work that had
ended in high school graduation.
But Epic’s graduation ceremony
is an event not experienced by a
majority of its students.
In a state where the aver-
age graduation rate is 83%, just
40.2% of Epic’s students graduat-
ed on time last year, according to
recently released school assessment
data from the state Department of
Education.
Accounting for fifth- and sixth-
year graduates, Epic’s rate remains
near 40%.
In fact, fewer than half of all
students at three of the four virtual
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
charter schools in Oklahoma grad-
uated within six years, according to
the same state data.
Leaders of Oklahoma’s growing
virtual charter school system pro-
mote it as an option of last resort for
thousands of students not adequately
served in traditional school envi-
ronments, and despite low overall
academic performance, they claim
students demonstrate significant
growth and eventually will be pre-
pared to graduate.
But low graduation rates bring
into question the effectiveness of
these computer-based public schools
that now educate more than 25,000
students in nearly every community
across the state.
“It’s alarming,” State Super-
intendent Joy Hofmeister told The
Frontier. “It should cause those
school districts and their sponsors
to take a very fine-tuned focus to
examining why the rate is so low.”
Epic One on One Charter School
enrolled nearly 6,500 high school
students last year, making it one of
the largest high schools in the state.
The school’s performance on math,
English and science tests also is well
below the state average.
However, the school reports near
perfect attendance among its stu-
dents, a claim challenged by other
education officials who doubt its
enrollment data.
The school currently is under
investigation by Oklahoma State
See VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOLS, Page A3
 Enid News & Eagle
Visit us online at enidnews.com
Epic Charter School’s
Tulsa offices are at
3810 S. 103rd East Ave.
(Dylan Goforth / The
Dec Frontier)
01
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VIRTUAL CHARTER SCHOOLS
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Bureau of Investigation, which alleged Epic’s founders have
embezzled state funds and falsified enrollment records to
increase funding.
Epic has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
At Insight School of Oklahoma, a virtual school with near-
ly 600 students in seventh through 12th grade, the four-year
graduation rate last year was 33.6%.
At Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy, the graduation
rate was 47.6%.
Oklahoma Connections Academy posted the best gradua-
tion rate for a virtual charter school at 54.2%.
Rebecca Wilkenson, executive director of the Statewide
Virtual Charter School Board, the state agency tasked with
authorizing virtual schools, said the graduation rates were a
“concern” for the board.
“The Board continues to gather data related to graduation,
including the number of credit deficient students enrolled,
to understand better the students served in virtual charter
schools,” Wilkenson said in an emailed statement to The
Frontier.
At risk students
Virtual charter school enrollment has exploded in recent
years as school leaders say more students are seeking a non-
traditional method of education.
Shelly Hickman, assistant superintendent at Epic, said the
school is committed to improving its graduation rates, but in
many cases the students coming to Epic were at risk of drop-
ping out at their previous school.
“We know many of our students are at-risk the day they
come to us because of the difficulties that led them to us in the
first place,” Hickman said in an email to The Frontier. “We
work every year to improve the supports we have in place to
ensure they have every opportunity to get over the finish line
and graduate.”
Hickman said Epic has hired a credit recovery specialist to
work with students at risk of dropping out, along with launch-
ing a new internship and CareerTech concurrent enrollment
program for juniors and seniors.
“I want to underscore that high school students who trans-
fer into Epic often are credit deficient, meaning they were
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
at risk of not graduating at their previous school,” Hickman
said. “Many come to us after Oct. 1 and are referred by their
residing school because they are in danger of not graduating
at that school.”
Leaders at Insight School of Oklahoma also pointed to the
school’s large population of at-risk students, including those
dealing with behavioral difficulties, pregnancy or parenting,
substance issues, physical or psychological trauma and juve-
nile justice involvement.
“The federal four-year cohort graduation rate was designed
for traditional school systems and generally assumes a stable
population of students,” said Sheryl Tatum, senior director of
academic policy and research at Insight. “It is not a reliable
measure for schools with high mobility or those that enroll
at-risk students. Online schools like (Insight), for example,
generally have higher mobility rates and enroll high numbers
of at-risk, under-credited transfer high schoolers.”
Tatum also said Insight recently was awarded a grant
from Oklahoma State Department of Education to support
four engagement specialists to work with students at risk of
dropping out.
“The grant will also provide several professional develop-
ment opportunities for teachers and staff that develop skills
needed for working with at-risk students,” Tatum said.
Low academic performance and graduation rates have
three virtual charter schools identified for Comprehensive
Support and Improvement (CSI) as required by federal edu-
cation standards. The CSI designation gives schools up to
three years to improve before State Department of Education
intervenes with specific remedies.
Hofmeister said schools should be given the chance to
improve, but there is a sense of urgency in helping students
now.
“I want to see schools have the needed time to respond
to what they see and the evidence that would drive the right
strategy,” Hofmeister said. “But students don’t have one day
to lose, let alone a year.”
The Frontier is a nonprofit focusing on investigative and watchdog journalism. For
more information or to donate, go to www.readfrontier.org.
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Seminole Producer

money for gravel, Dee a campaign to begin the (See Ballfield on Page A3)

EPIC Enrollment Numbers Rise

EPIC Charter Schools Epic. previous school year
has a record number Seminole County cur- was 21,305 students.
of students for the cur- rently has 146 EPIC However, EPIC ended
rent 2019-2020 school students, which is a the 2018-2019 school
year and is anticipated stark contrast to the 623 year with more than
to be the state’s third enrolled in Pottawato- 24,000 students, climb-
largest public-school mie County. ing by more than 3,000
system in Oklahoma The Oklahoma–based students during the
when the State Depart- virtual charter school course of the school
ment of Education soon reported its October 1 year.
announces enrollment enrollment was 28,070 October 1 enrollment is
for all Oklahoma school students. typically the data set the
districts, according to By comparison, Oct. 1 Oklahoma Department
information released by enrollment for EPIC the (See Epic on Page A3)

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Seminole Producer

es is
lan
he
m-
zEpic We
(Continued from Page 1) determined by the high- rid
Dec re
01
of Education reports est enrollment number re-
ay for all school districts to roa
an shown for the last three
2019 determine school year years, regardless of the Lim
rd be
enrollment for each district’s current-year
Page school district.
vi- enrollment.
A003
“EPIC’s growth shows so
Clip
op Midterm funding isn’t an
resized or the support that exists additional revenue for a rid
57% across the state for school district. It is simply ec
From th public school options for the state adjusting fund- bri
A001
I Oklahoma families and ing at ‘midterm’ of the
he students,” said Bart Ban- school year to reflect
nt field, Superintendent for
id school districts’ actual
EPIC Charter Schools. and audited enrollment.
ce “We serve students That is, what looks
is in all 77 counties and like an increase, or
at believe our model is decrease, in funding is
all popular with families simply the state playing
ot because we individual- catch-up. N
re ize education to meet the In the case of EPIC,
ed unique needs of each the State is providing
student. One size does funding for students who
a not fit all when it comes
le are enrolled and being
ly to children, teaching and served -- but for whom
learning.” no state funding was pro-
EPIC’s enrollment 3
mi- vided for the first semes-
e- growth suggests mid- ter of the school year.
term funding, which will “We are proud to be
re be announced by the serving a record number
oj- State soon, will likely of students this school
of be proportionally higher
n- year with fully certified
than midterm funding for teachers that have class
many traditional school rosters on average of 27
oj-
d, districts. students each,” Banfield
ge This is because char- said.
b,” ter schools are initially “We anticipate we
funded based on the will continue to grow
g- number of students throughout this school
ad enrolled as of August 1, year, just as we have
al whereas funding for tra-
alt for the previous school
ditional school districts is years.”
ng
w

We Pledge To Be
is

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ty Helping you is the most importan
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