Superintendent of Direction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, started an audit more than a year back into the financial concerns of the Options for Youth and Opportunities for Learning (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run however moneyed by the state.

The OYO California schools serve trainees who have actually dropped out of the standard high schools. They presently have about 15,000 students in 40 shop areas across the state. These California schools trainees do most of their work at home, conference with instructors twice a week. According to state records, trainee achievement test and high school exit exam ratings are above average, as compared to other alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times post of August 10th, only 11 percent of OYO trainees finished during the 2003-2004 school year. The remainder of students that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools.

The California schools' audit was carried out by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Support Group, who concluded their analysis and presented their findings in a report that was launched in August 2006. The audit cites accounting problems, overpayments by the state, conflicts of interest, nepotism, extreme compensation, and blending private company concerns with public schools.

The OYO was established and still operated by John and Joan Hall, previous teachers from Hollywood High School. They have actually completely cooperated with the California schools' audit, but dispute many of the findings.

Some examples from the audit report are:

• Accounting Problems and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their instructors as 1.92 full-time positions. Their representative, Stevan Allen, specified that this is a typical practice for charter schools in the California schools system and is a legitimate technique for compensating school staff for longer days and year-round schedules. California schools superintendent O'Connell believes teachers must be counted only as one full-time position each. The auditors disagreed, pointing out that traditional California schools teachers spend much less time working each year than those at OYO. Nevertheless, the auditors thought the 1.92 quantity is inflated. This example, alone, represent more than half of the $57 million overpayment.

In addition, the report noted numerous doubtful expenses. One example of unrestrained costs, provided by the Times was an $18,000 staff celebration held at Disneyland. Allen protected that occasion as an effort at relationship building in between employee, who are spread across the state. He noted that the costs was less than $50 per team member.

• Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Organisation with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls own and run numerous personal companies that sell products and services to schools. The Times noted that the Alternatives in OYO was the nonprofit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit calls this practice and setup into question.

• Extreme Compensation. The audit likewise questions the combined salaries for the Halls, which is $600,000 each year. The report mentions that it might be extreme for the amount of time the couple actually works.

• Nepotism. The Halls created a different charity with $10.8 million of the California schools' funding, called Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their daughter, Jamie Hall. Little cash has been invested toward education therefore far.

The Halls compete that they formerly had actually requested guidance on their operation from the California schools sometimes, but never got any response. Hence, they tried to follow California schools requirements as finest they could with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell yielded that none of the mentioned practices are illegal.

The audit suggests the California schools must try to recuperate the $57 million in overpayment from the OYO. O'Connell has actually sent out the report to the state's chief car donation free towing law officer's office for review and any needed action.