Leaders of a national charter school organization Wednesday accused a former Covenant Keepers College Preparatory Charter School superintendent of making unauthorized withdrawals from a bank account, putting the 114-student Little Rock school in financial peril.
Joe Harris, chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C.-based Friendship Education Foundation, said the former superintendent, Valerie Tatum, had acquired a total of $188,905.93 in three withdrawals made from U.S Bank in the past two weeks.
Friendship Education Foundation is running Covenant Keepers school this year on behalf of the City of Fire Community Development Inc., a nonprofit organization that holds the state charter that allows Covenant Keepers to operate and receive state funding. That charter is set to expire in June. The Friendship organization has said it would like to acquire a state charter for a school in the same location, which would require state approval.
When asked Wednesday about the allegations, Tatum declined to comment without her lawyer and would not disclose the name of her attorney.
Harris said he filed a complaint Wednesday with the Little Rock Police Department accusing Tatum of theft from the account that is controlled by the City of Fire.
Little Rock Police Department spokesman Officer Eric Barnes said Wednesday afternoon that if such a report has been filed, it has not yet been completed.
Harris said the account was essentially drained by Tatum, who he said was not authorized to pull from what was the school's operating fund -- the source of funding for employee salaries, utilities, supplies and rent payments.
Although Tatum's husband, Tyron Tatum, is a member of the board of directors for City of Fire, only Nolan Buckley of that organization was authorized to make financial transactions for the school, Harris said, adding that he did not believe Buckley was aware of any withdrawals made by Valerie Tatum.
Friendship Education Foundation communications consultant Shannon Travis said "only a few thousand dollars" remain in the account.
"It's certainly not enough left to keep the school operating with those funds," Travis said. "Because Friendship has been seeking to take over the school's charter, they are at this very moment trying to figure out a way to keep the school open. Friendship is as much of a victim as the students and the teachers are in all of this."
Harris also accused Tatum of taking furniture and equipment from the school that serves sixth through eighth graders in a church-owned building at 5615 Geyer Springs Road.
Covenant Keepers Principal Lauren Chapman, who took over the school's leadership in September, said she was made aware of the missing funds on Feb. 8. Parents and teachers have not yet been notified, she said.
"We will want to ensure our students continue to have what they need, as well as the staff," Chapman said. "It's certainly a very challenging situation."
Harris said the missing funds were discovered as Friendship foundation leaders attempted to reconcile the account transactions.
Early Wednesday, the ability of the school to remain open this school year was in question, but by mid-afternoon Harris said that -- with help from the Arkansas Department of Education -- new safeguards had just been put in place to keep the school in operation and "it won't be business as normal."
Those safeguards include the closing of the school's bank account and the opening of a new one that requires signatures of two authorized persons for financial transactions.
Additionally, a new board of directors is in place for the school, Harris said.
That board is made up of the Friendship Education Foundation's existing board for the organization's charter school that opened this year in Pine Bluff and a second school that will open in August in central Little Rock.
"We're doing everything we can to fight," Harris said about the Covenant Keepers' ability to remain open. "[Arkansas Department of Education] has been great in helping and doing everything they can to ensure the school remains open."
Kimberly Friedman, a spokesman for the state agency, said late Wednesday that the department staff was looking into the matter but did not have a comment on it.
The Arkansas Board of Education has a regularly scheduled meeting today and Covenant Keepers' June 30 charter expiration is on the agenda for the Education Board's review.
Chapman said Wednesday that she is confident the school will remain open through the end of the year.
"We are not closing school tomorrow," Chapman said. "We are putting a plan in place for the year. This is a very new development. We're still sorting through the situation."
Since learning of the missing funds Friday, Chapman said she and her staff worked "all weekend and all this week to ensure protection for the school."
"We want to make sure the plan is sound," Chapman said. "Our mission is to continue teaching."
Harris said the Covenant Keepers has been fiscally sound while under the management of the Friendship Education Foundation and it will continue to receive state funding provided to charter schools. As a result, he said, the school has funds to operate -- even with the loss of the money in the account.
"Friendship is determined to correct the situation," Travis said. "They've reported this to the authorities. Now they're focusing on 'How can we right this?'"
Covenant Keepers, authorized by the state in 2008, has frequently found itself in fiscal and academic jeopardy with the state's authorizing panel and the state Board of Education.
The school was put on probation by the state for financial issues in 2012. That stemmed in part from a 2010-11 school year financial audit that was late in being turned in and showed that the school's director -- Tatum -- had made interest-bearing loans to her school. She said she didn't intend to profit from the loans but offset the penalties she incurred for cashing in personal certificates of deposits. She did that to help the school's cash flow, she said.
In 2013 and in 2014, the school was designated as being in academic distress. In multiple years following, the school was called on frequently to respond to concerns about academic progress and financial stability.
City of Fire and the Friendship Education Foundation attempted to reach an agreement to transfer the existing charter to the Friendship Education Foundation, but Harris said in January those negotiations were unsuccessful.
"The reason for the breakdown was chiefly due to slow responses and a delay in City of Fire producing documentation to support additional debt that was included in a new debt schedule presented to Friendship," Harris said last month.
Tatum told the panel last month that she retired from the school last fall and that her organization no longer wanted responsibility for the school, although she would like to see it continue for students.
Because no charter renewal application was submitted, the charter is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year, June 30.
Harris said in an interview after the panel vote last month that his organization would apply to acquire state approval to operate a school in place of Covenant Keepers.
Metro on 02/14/2019