NC education officials reject Torchlight Academy's appeal to stay open

New leaders appealed the charter revocation Wednesday and presented a plan for turning the troubled school around, amid leadership turnover, financial uncertainty, continued inquiries into operations and lingering turmoil with the top leaders the school board recently fired.

After nearly two hours, the Education Innovation and Charter Schools committee deliberated and voted unanimously against the school.

Members said they were concerned about the financial health of Torchlight Academy, whether the school would properly serve special education students and whether its school board would hold it accountable.

“It is important that this committee recognizes, affirms and offers our sincere gratitude to Dr. (Randy) Bridges for assuming temporary supervision of the school,” committee Chairwoman Amy White said.

The full State Board of Education will make a final decision based on the committee’s recommendation next week.

The committee made its recommendation after a closed session meeting for deliberation. After the meeting, which was hosted remotely, the committee announced its decision.

Wednesday’s hearing featured substantial discussion of how the charter school is faring and moving forward after severing most, but not all, ties with former leadership.

The school remains under a lease agreement with the executive director the school board fired, who is married to the principal the board fired, and who is the father and father-in-law of two other people the school board fired.

Stephon Bowens, an attorney representing the school, said the former executive director, who owns the management organization that the school board also fired, is still holding key financial and other records and keeping them from the school. The school intends to sue for an injunction if it can’t soon obtain the records, Bowens said.

In March, the school’s board fired Donnie McQueen as executive director, Cynthia McQueen as principal, former Exceptional Children Director Shawntrice Andrews and substitute teach Aaron Andrews. The board also terminated any agreements with Aaron Andrews’ company, Luv Lee Sanitation.

The McQueens are married and their daughter is Shawntrice Andrews, who is married to Aaron Andrews.

The board also moved to terminate its contact with Torchlight Academy Schools LLC, owned by Donnie McQueen, as its education management organization. The State Board of Education approved that termination, as an amendment to its charter, in April.

Torchlight Academy Schools still owns the building the school leases for its middle school students. Currently, rent is $13,500 per month, or $162,000 for 12 months. Amid discussions with Donnie McQueen about renewing its middle school lease, the school is budgeting another $2,750 per month next year, or $195,000 total for 12 months.

The school owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the federal government for not documenting how it spent federal money. State Department of Public Instruction officials said they are concerned the school could end up owing more than leaders have accounted for.

“I just think there could be additional exposure there,” said Jennifer Bennett, director school business at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

Bowens said the school’s budget reflects added reserves in case the school owes more money.

The school’s planned budget for next year is $7.1 million. DPI officials said inquiries into the school’s handling of federal dollars since Torchlight Academy Schools LLC began managing the school in the fall of 2016 could call into question whether the school would have to pay back even more more. It received more than $2 million during that time.

Additionally, DPI officials noted the school planned to use $1.4 million in federal COVID-19 stimulus funds to cover its operations, which is potentially not in line with how those funds are supposed to be used.

Federal COVID-19 stimulus funds are intended to mitigate COVID-19’s impact on schools, including helping students make up for time lost during pandemic-caused learning disruptions. At the same time, outside experts have said the funds can be used fairly flexibly. North Carolina lawmakers have used tens of millions of stimulus dollars toward implementing new reading instruction statewide.

The school has also not yet been approved for its allocation of federal special education funds, which the state manages and disburses, because it hasn’t proven its complied with regulations prohibiting the funds from supplanting other spending, state Exceptional Children Division Director Sherry Thomas told the panel. It has failed to do so the past, requiring the school to pay back potions of the funds.

Audit: NC charter school falsified student records, misused school funding

In addition, dozens of children who are supposed to be enrolled in special education can’t be officially counted for funding because their individualized education program plans are out of compliance, Thomas said.

“We think the level of delivery of services has been so egregious that it’s going to be probably most if not all students” who will need new plans, Thomas said.

That’s about 50 to 60 plans.

“That’s a pretty heavy lift,” Thomas said.

Bowens said the school has money its reserves for potential need to do more plans. No dollar amount has been given for how much that would cost.

Part of the State Board of Education’s concern with Torchlight Academy has been what state officials say is inadequate oversight of the school by its school board.

The school board remains in tact as it has, but school leaders are recommending replacing four of the board members by this summer.

Bowens said the board members can’t be replaced with the best possible candidates until the school’s charter is reinstated, because good candidates wouldn’t sign on if the school had no future.

The board would also be required to receive regular training.

NC charter school poses 'immediate threat,' must close, State Board of Education determines

White, the Education Innovation and Charter Schools Committee chairwoman, told school officials, prior to the committee’s vote, that she’d notice many of the board members have the same last names.

White said a school board is better “with a lack of familial relationships” and encouraged leaders to recur board members “not linked other by any family connection.”

Bowens said those concerns had already come up and leaders were prepared to follow that advice.

Torchlight Academy is just the latest charter school driven to closure after enhanced state scrutiny in the past year.

Torchlight Academy Schools managed one other school recently ordered to the close by the State Board of Education: Three Rivers Academy in Bertie County.

The school also employed many of the same people at Torchlight Academy in Raleigh, despite the distance between the two schools.

“While the State Board would prefer to close a school at the end of the school year, the State Board finds that immediate closure is necessary to protect the education needs, welfare, and rights of students currently enrolled in Three Rivers Academy, and to safeguard the financial and other public assets that are in the school’s possession,” the order read.

The State Board ended the school’s charter after finding “egregious misconduct,” the school board’s “complete lack of oversight” and “complete abdication of its responsibility,” poor student performance, violation of federal and state laws and violations of its own charter. That included noncompliance with federal special education law, which is also among the reasons cited by the board in March, when the board revoked the charter of Torchlight Academy in Raleigh.