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Choctaw Times

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Enid News & Eagle
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An Epic Charter School administrative office building is seen on 122nd Street in northwest
Oklahoma City. (Whitney Bryen / Oklahoma Watch)
Former Epic teachers
sue school over firing
By Jennifer Palmer
Oklahoma Watch
Two former teachers have
filed lawsuits against Epic
Charter Schools, alleging they
were fired for pushing back
against pressure to manipulate
the enrollment of their students.
Notices that the teachers
intended to sue were previ-
ously filed with the school, as
reported by Oklahoma Watch
in June. Two other teachers who filed
notices have not yet filed lawsuits.
The lawsuits, by Noelle Waller and
Shauna Atchley, also raise issues with the
virtual school’s employment practices,
such as its bonus-pay system. Waller was
hired in 2013 and Atchley in 2017; both
were fired in June 2018 and say they are
owed all or part of their bonus payment
for the 2017-18 school year.
Epic previously has denied the allega-
tions. The lawsuits were filed Friday in
Oklahoma County District Court; Epic’s
lawyers have not yet filed responses.
Both lawsuits allege Epic recruited
teachers based on a bonus structure that
allows teachers an opportunity to earn
double their base salary. Teachers were
told they could earn significantly more at
Epic than other schools.
However, Epic pays out the bonuses
the following year, and only if employees
are still employed with Epic at the time.
“Epic’s business model depended on
terminating a significant number of teach-
ers, while retaining the students that the
teachers had recruited,” Waller’s lawsuit
alleges.
Waller, in the lawsuit, alleges her prin-
cipal, Jodie Shupe, insisted certain stu-
dents be withdrawn from her roster for
truancy and those students always hap-
pened to be low-performing based on
benchmarking exams. She says the pres-
sure to withdraw increased in January or
February, as state testing approached.
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
Atchley, too, alleges her
principal, Kristie Surface,
pressured her to withdraw
students, told her “she need-
ed to dump all her students
that reduced bonuses” and
once called a low-perform-
ing student a “waste of time,”
according to the lawsuit.
Principals also receive
bonus payments based on stu-
dents’ scores.
Waller says Epic terminated
her employment citing her students’ test
scores. She says her scores were lower than
other teachers’ in part because she refused
to withdraw students who did not test well.
In Epic’s response to her intent to sue,
an attorney for the school says Waller was
fired for other reasons, such as failing to
comply with an employee agreement and
handbook, inappropriate conduct, parent
complaints, habitual poor performance,
unprofessional and rude behavior and
repeatedly bringing a weapon into a test-
ing site.
Similarly, Atchley says at the time
she was fired, Epic cited “performance
issues.” But in a response, an attorney
for Epic alleges Atchley’s employment
was actually terminated for failing to
comply with the employee agreement
and handbook, and her relationship with
her pet monkey, which Epic says she
brought to a testing site without autho-
rization.
An attorney representing Atchley and
Waller says those reasons are false and
weren’t raised before the teachers were
fired. Waller has told Oklahoma Watch
the “weapon” was a cane.
Both teachers are asking the judge to
award them at least $75,000.
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3)
corporation whose mission is to produce in-depth and
investigative journalism on public-policy and quality-of-
life issues facing the state.
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Muskogee Phoenix
OUR VIEW
Pemberton deserves recognition
Two important constit-
uency groups recognized
state Sen. Dewayne Pem-
berton as Legislator of the
Year, an honor we believe is
well-deserved for the work
he has done on behalf of
public employees and pub-
lic schools.
Having spent 36 years of
his life as a teacher, coach,
athletic director and princi-
pal before being elected to
the Oklahoma Senate, the
Muskogee lawmaker has
proven himself a dedicated
public servant. As senator
of District 9, Pemberton
has become an effective
representative of others as
chairman of the Senate Ap-
propriations Subcommittee
on Education and member
of the Senate Education
Committee.
His efforts were recog-
nized by both the Okla-
homa Public Employees
Association and the Okla-
homa State School Boards
Association, the members
of which the senator has
been a keen advocate. Both
organizations and the
members they represent
deserve an advocate who
will represent them to the
extent Pemberton has up to
this point of his first term
in office.
OPEA cited Pemberton
for his support of both ac-
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
tive and retired state em-
ployees. That support was
demonstrated in part by a
bill Pemberton filed that
would grant cost-of-living
increases to retired state
employees and increase
their representation on the
state employee pension
board.
OSSBA pointed to the
senator’s support of legis-
lation designed to restore
limits on the number of
students in classrooms and
modernize how the state
funds alternative educa-
tion. The organization also
cited Pemberton’s efforts to
improve accountability and
transparency at charter
schools, which is particu-
larly important considering
the ongoing investigation of
Epic Charter Schools.
Pemberton pledged to
be a strong supporter of
public employees and
public schools throughout
his campaign. He followed
through on those prom-
ises and was recognized
by these organizations as
Legislator of the Year for
doing so.
It’s an honor of which
we’re sure he’s proud. We’re
proud to claim him as
Muskogee’s own, congratu-
late him, and look forward
to more good work from
him in the future.
 Weatherford Daily News

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Sulphur Times-Democrat
p ( ) y
State Probe Of Epic Expands To
Chief Financial Officer, Board
by Jennifer Palmer
Oklahoma Watch
A state investigation into Epic
Charter Schools has expanded to
include the school’s chief finan-
cial officer and four current or
former board members, according
to a search warrant filed in Okla-
homa County Wednesday.
In the affidavit for the search
warrant, an Oklahoma State Bu-
reau of Investigation agent alleges
Epic has been using state-appro-
priated funds to pay for students’
extracurricular expenses through
independent vendors but reported
those expenditures to the state as
“instructional services,” which
the OSBI agent alleges is fraud.
Read the Newest Search-War-
rant Affidavit
Named in the affidavit are Josh
Brock, the school’s CFO, who
made the purchases, as well as
Doug Scott, Travis Burkett, Mike
Cantrell and Peter Regan, who are
being investigated for allegedly
neglecting their duty as board
members to oversee the school’s
operations.
The search warrant was first
p
reported by the Tulsa World.
The OSBI on Wednesday
seized a laptop and bank state-
ments from OKC Storm Athletics,
a Christian sports vendor for
home-school students, according
to its website. Epic pays vendors
for student activities through what
Epic calls its “Learning Fund.”
The affidavit is the latest in
an ongoing investigation into
financial wrongdoing at the state’s
largest virtual charter school.
Epic has denied any wrongdo-
ing, and on Wednesday afternoon
issued a statement saying, “Epic
and its founders will continue
to cooperate with investigators,
who have now been probing the
school for more than six years.
It is important to note that no
charges have ever been filed.We
are confident that the end result
of this investigation will be as it
has always been – no finding of
wrongdoing.”
Epic is the only virtual school
in Oklahoma that uses a “learn-
ing fund’ – essentially a portion
of each student’s state funding
($800 to $1,000) that is set aside
to be used on curriculum, a laptop
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
rental, art supplies, workbooks,
and other items of the family’s
choosing. Families also use the
funds on a variety of extracur-
ricular activities, like club sports,
martial arts, dancing or summer
camps.
Parents don’t actually receive
the money directly but instead
request a purchase from Epic,
which then pays the vendors di-
rectly. The school now has more
than 1,200 vendors.
The learning fund is a big
recruitment tool to attract fam-
ilies, and families who refer
new students are rewarded with
an additional deposit into their
student’s fund.
According to the affidavit,
Epic in 2012 was advised by
an attorney for its sponsoring
school district at the time, Gra-
ham-Dustin Public Schools,
that using the learning fund for
extracurricular activities when
the students received no elective
credit would violate state law.
David Chaney, a businessman
who co-founded the school, then
opened a checking account for the
learning fund and transferred state
funds to it, which Brock used to
pay for students’ extracurricular
activities, the affidavit states.
Those purchases did not appear
on Epic’s general fund payment
register and were reported to the
state as “instructional services.”
Rebecca Wilkinson, exec-
utive director of the Statewide
Virtual Charter School Board,
told the OSBI agent instructional
expenditures “must be a course
supported by a teacher of record,
a recorded grade and included on
the transcript,” the affidavit states.
In many cases, these weren’t. The
agent cites a statute he says is evi-
dence the school committed fraud.
The agent in the affidavit ac-
cuses Chaney and Brock of con-
cealing fraudulent expenditures
“by disguising the payments as
instructional services” and falsi-
fying corporate records.
The OSBI agent reported at
least two instances when Epic
used vendors who were convicted
felons.
The OSBI is also investigating
whether Burkett, Cantrell, Regan
and Scott neglected their duties as
board members in violation of the
law. Cantrell, head of an oil and
gas company in Ada, is a current
board member and Scott, a Tulsa
attorney, is chairman. Burkett and
Regan are no longer on the board.
This search warrant is the sec- tion and the U.S. Department of
ond in as many months filed by the Education.
OSBI. In July, the agents seized an The school is also facing a
Epic teacher’s computer and cell potential lawsuit by several for-
phone in search of evidence re- mer teachers, who say they were
lated to alleged embezzlement of pressured into withdrawing and
state funds and obtaining money re-enrolling students to manip-
under false pretenses, including ulate enrollment to improve the
through the use of “ghost stu- school’s report card grade.
dents” who didn’t actually receive “Oklahoma Watch, at okla-
instruction through the school. homawatch.org, is a nonprofit
The school’s co-founders, media organization that covers
Chaney and Ben Harris, split prof-
its of $10 million between 2013
and 2018, that affidavit states.
The OSBI’s investigation into Crimestoppers
Epic has been ongoing since 2013.
When it’s complete, the agency is CALL
expected to present its findings
to the Oklahoma County district
attorney for possible filing of 580-622-3388
criminal charges.
In addition, the school is un- To report suspicious
dergoing an investigative audit by
the State Auditor & Inspector, and
activity. All calls will
at least two federal probes – by remain anonymous.
the Federal Bureau of Investiga-