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The Utah Charter School Board, admonished by a legislative audit to set clear standards to govern financial oversight of charter schools, is developing new guidelines to monitor the schools' fiscal health. But on Wednesday, some Utah legislators warned the board not to go too far.
"What a lot of charter schools fear is that you may be imposing uniformity on their schools in how they educate. I hope that's not what you're trying to do," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, at a legislative committee meeting. "The Legislature [allowed charter schools] in hopes of creating laboratories of new ideas."
Tom Morgan, chairman of the charter board, told Stephenson and other members of the Administrative Rules Review Committee that the effort is focused solely on the financial aspects of running charter schools.
"We look for innovation," Morgan said. "Because charter schools also have to run a business, then they ought to have a [business] plan."
The charter board plans to present the financial guidelines to the State Board of Education (SBOE) this spring for adoption as an administrative rule. A draft of the policy includes benchmarks for cash on hand, debt loads and sticking to an annual budget.
Stephenson acknowledged the committee, which he chairs, does not have the power to overturn an administrative rule. But, he said, the Legislature does. He also questioned whether SBOE has authority to tighten oversight of charter schools.
"We probably need to take a step back and look at the overall system for promulgating rules for charter schools," echoed Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi.
Chris Bleak, president of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, said charter schools already have accountability plans and conduct financial audits each year.
"We believe strongly that charter schools should be well run," he said. "The boards of the individual charter schools, those that have made the contract — the charter — with the state, are the ones that need to be involved in this process of determining what these fiscal standards are."
Morgan said the board has sought feedback from the state's 80 charter schools and has extended its deadline for receiving comments.
The need for financial standards came to light last spring when the charter board voted to shutter Beehive Science and Technology Academy but then reversed its decision when the school demanded to know what standards it had failed to meet.
"This was a huge wake-up call for us," Morgan said Wednesday. "It was a wake-up call for [Beehive]."
Beehive academy now is on strong financial footing, Morgan said. The school raised about $250,000 in private donations, moved into a less expensive building in Sandy and recruited new members for its board. Morgan said the donations were gathered within a two or three-day period last spring after a successful fundraising campaign to save the troubled school. This year, the school is not dependent on another infusion of cash, he said.