The Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District has agreed to pay over $726,000 to the state as part of a settlement in a charter school fraud scheme.
Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District agreed to pay $726,606 to the state, as part of a settlement, in one of the largest fraud schemes targeting educational dollars for kindergarten through 12th grade students in the nation, the San Diego County District Attorney said.
The District is set to make eight quarterly payments of about $90,825 each starting July 1. The last payment is scheduled to be due April 1, 2023.
Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District, along with five other school districts, authorized A3 Charter Schools, collecting millions of dollars in fees for overseeing the schools’ operations.
According to the California Department of Education, school districts are allowed to charge charter schools for the actual costs of oversight.
The district was found to have charged oversight fees over the limits set by California’s Education Code without tracking the actual costs, said San Diego Superior Court judge Frederick Link.
Link concluded that a contract allowing a chartering authority, which in this case would be the school district, to get more funds than are actually needed for supervising the charter school is an unlawful contract.
The settlement follows the charging of Sean McManus, 48, and Jason Schrock, 44 with fraud in May of 2019 after a year-long investigation by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office’s Public Corruption Team.
McManus and Schrock operated and controlled 19 California charter schools, which they used to divert millions of dollars in public education funding for personal gain, according to District Attorney Summer Stephan.
According to the Office of the District Attorney for San Diego County, their A3 Charter School scheme gave them access to over $50 million in funds from the State of California by opening 19 charter schools across California, collectively called “A3 Charter Schools.”
The district’s charter school program began under former superintendent Brent Woodard with one charter school in 2012. By 2017, there were 17 charter schools authorized by the District. The District is down to 12 authorized charter schools.
Acton-Agua Dulce Unified authorized A3 Charter School’s Valiant Academy Los Angeles, also known as Online Academy of Los Angeles, Mosaica Online Academy of Los Angeles, Mosaica Academy of Los Angeles, and Valiant Academy LA.
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