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Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
Battle over charter schools funds set for trial
Nuria Martinez-Keel
The Oklahoman
A legal dispute will go to trial over Epic Charter
Schools student funds.
A final hearing will take place Dec. 16 to 18 in Okla-
homa County District Court for a case involving State
Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd and the company
that manages Epic Charter Schools. District Judge
Natalie Mai set the trial date during a hearing Tuesday
afternoon.
The hearing would conclude a nine-month court
battle over financial records that the company, Epic
Youth Services, says are private. Byrd’s office is audit-
ing Epic Charter Schools and Epic Youth Services at
the request of Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Byrd said the company has rebuffed requests to
turn over financial documents of Epic’s Learning
Fund, a bank account that pays $1,000 per student for
extracurricular activities, technology costs and sup-
plemental curricula. State investigators alleged Epic
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
used the Learning Fund to embezzle taxpayer funds.
Epic has denied any wrongdoing.
Attorneys representing Epic Youth Services said
those funds are no longer public once they are paid to a
private company, so they shouldn’t be subject to a pub-
lic audit.
The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School
Board, which oversees the Epic One-on-One virtual
school, argued in a friend-of-the-court brief that state
auditors should be able to review records for the
Learning Fund.
That money supports students’ education at a pub-
lic charter school. This makes them subject to a state
audit regardless of whether the school keeps the rec-
ords or a company, said attorney Marie Schuble, who
represents the virtual charter school board.
Mai approved the board’s friend-of-the-court brief
to be formally included in the case. The full brief origi-
nally was filed July 15.
The judge denied a similar request from Rose State
College. The college oversees Epic Blended Centers,
physical learning sites that incorporate online learn-
ing.
Rose State intended to file a brief siding with Epic
Youth Services. Rose State attorney Raymond Vincent
said the state auditor has no authority to review a pri-
vate company’s finances, including the Learning
Fund.
Mai previously denied a brief making the same ar-
guments from the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce.
During a hearing in June, the judge decided the cham-
ber could file a brief in the case only to help interpret
law, not to discuss the facts of the case between Byrd
and Epic.
Mai said Rose State still could play a role in the case
as a witness, but a brief from the college would only
delay an already extended case. Rose State didn’t sub-
mit its full brief until 20 days after the court’s deadline
of Aug. 7.
“Do not take my ruling to mean that they are not
allowed to be a part of the case,” Mai said at the hear-
ing.