News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The leaders of an Oregon charter school network that included academies in Sisters are facing accusations of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering in a lawsuit that seeks nearly $20 million in compensation to the state.
Education entrepreuer Tim King of EDChoices founded Sisters AllPrep charter school in Sisters, which ran the Sisters Web Academy. The pre-existing charter school Sisters Academy of Fine Arts was also brought under the AllPrep umbrella.
The charter school enterprise operated at least 10 schools under a variety of different names across Oregon.
The Oregon Department of Education provides startup grants for charter schools and disburses funds to them based on student enrollment. Charter schools operate under contracts with local districts.
The Sisters School District terminated its contract with EDChoices in January 2010, citing several breaches of contract.
Then board vice-president Glen Lasken cited the transfer of students in fall of 2009 out of the Sisters Web Academy into other Web academies operated by Tim King, proprietor of AllPrep. That transfer, Lasken said, appeared to have been made without parental permission.
Lasken also said that there was evidence that the academies were co-mingling funds, an issue that is part of the basis if the current lawsuit.
Lasken and the board further argue that AllPrep changed leadership and curriculum without consulting the district; set arbitrary limits on enrollment; and failed to provide timely and accurate financial and enrollment information to the district.
The current lawsuit claims that King and EDChoices president Norm Donohoe, headquartered in Clackamas, received money from the Oregon Department of Education under false pretenses (although the academies did, in fact, educate students).
The complaint reads that "defendants obtained ODE money ... by submitting erroneous, false or misleading claims to ODE..." These false claims allegedly involved progress reports, enrollment invoices and expenditure reports, among other documents.
The lawsuit also alleges that requests for funds were made for specific academies, but were then commingled throughout the enterprise, an act which ODE claims King and Donohoe attempted to conceal.
The suit seeks nearly $17 million in reimbursement for grants and per-student funding allegedly obtained through racketeering and false claims. It also seeks $2.7 million in compensation for breach of contract.
Donohoe has referred all inquiries to his attorney after telling The Oregonian on Friday that "it's not true."
King has been unreachable for comment after numerous attempts to reach him since he stepped down as director as the charter academies in Sisters unraveled in 2010.
The Oregonian reports that King and his wife filed for bankruptcy in Oregon in 2011.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)