Hatchet Job of an Audit
Torn Apart One Section at a Time
State Auditor Cindy Byrd Caught Lying
on Multiple Issues and Facts
Another Inept and Incompetent “audit” like the Health Department Audit Where $30 Million was Missing and Then Not Missing?
Or a Case of a State Official Selling the Power of Her Office for Campaign Contributions and Teacher Union Thug Help in Elections?
The political hatchet job of an “audit” done by Oklahoma State Auditor Cindy Byrd is an eye watering mess of opinion and fact designed to punish Epic Charter School and drive them out of business. It is 116 pages of complaints about the structure of Epic, bitching about Epic making a profit, and using state law that applies to normal schools to second guess Epic's normal procedures, all of which were set up under the auspices of Graham Public Schools, the original school down near Henryetta that sponsored Epic, the State Department of Education (SDE), the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board (SVCSB), Rose State College, and the school board for Epic One on One, Community Strategies.
The Epic One on One school started around 2010 with Graham Public School as the original sponsor then once the SVCSB was set up they transferred to the state wide charter board (SVCSB). Then there is a second school sponsored by Rose State College, Epic Blended Charter School that was started in the summer of 2017. Both Rose State College and the SVCSB are primarily responsible for auditing the two Epic schools and are paid around 3% of the incoming revenue for that purpose.
The Byrd “audit” has eight chapters filled with a variety of wishes and bitches, plenty of hair splitting, plenty of outright outrage that a private company won't open up its private books to government auditors.
Chapter 1: Accountability and OversightChapter 2: Oklahoma Cost Accounting SystemChapter 3: PayrollChapter 4: Allocated Dues and FeesChapter 5: Student Learning FundChapter 6: Community Strategies-CA, LLCChapter 7: Audits and ReviewsChapter 8: Other Issues
Out of these dozens of “issues” the “audit” purported to find we are going to pick out two each week and go through both sides that have been told, that presented by the “audit” and the response from Epic showing what a sham the “audit” was.
We aren't going to go in order but have chosen the one issue that the “audit” whined about at the top of their audit, Chapter 5 the Student Learning Fund, and another issue in the Chapter 3 Payroll section, payments to the TRS, the Teacher Retirement System. We will start with that one first as it is the simplest as well as the most outrageous example of what a hatchet job this “audit” was.
[Watch for chapter 3, to be released at midnight, tonight.]
