State: Charter Day School salary submission incomplete

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — State regulators say a local charter school company failed to meet the requirements for information it asked for two months ago.

In a letter dated today to John Ferrante, Board Chair for Charter Day Schools, Inc., NC Department of Public Instruction Chief Financial Officer Philip Price says the information submitted for Charter Day School, Columbus Charter School, South Brunswick Charter School and Douglass Academy “was incomplete and does not contain the requested details outlined” in a letter Price sent to charter schools in August.

In that letter, Price requested the name, duties and annual salary for school employees paid by companies charter schools contract with to manage the schools. In this case, CDS contracts with Leland-based Roger Bacon Academy. Both CDS and RBA were founded by Baker Mitchell. CDS did meet the requirement to provide budget and spending reports of its schools.

WWAY and other media outlets have requested the same information in an attempt to achieve transparency on the way public funds are being spent by the charter schools managed by RBA. Late last month, WWAY received the same information sent to the state and immediately objected to the failure of CDS and RBA to fulfill our public records request.

In today’s letter, Price reminds CDS that failure to fulfill the requirements would violate the provisions of the schools’ charters and other regulations. Those violations would put the schools in financial non-compliance under State Board of Education policy.

Though the information was due Sept. 30, DPI has now given CDS until Wednesday to submit the requested information.

A spokeswoman for RBA and CDS did not immediately to a request for comment on the letter.