#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCANDAL

$3.1 Million Embezzled By Charter School Executive While The LAUSD Stood By

Board Member Nick Melvoin approved of an oversight regimen that allowed Community Preparatory Academy to defraud taxpayers for five years.

“We need to point out and be consistent of [sic] people who are saying that this board doesn’t hold charters accountable”

- Nick Melvoin

As Community Preparatory Academy (CPA) approached the end of its charter, it was $820,303 in debt. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was a major creditor, with invoices that were about two years old totaling $82,240. The school had not resolved the majority of the Notices to Cure that the LAUSD Charter School Division (CSD) had issued, some of which involved health and safety violations. “Since CPA [had] opened in 2014, the school [had] not earned a rating higher than a ‘2’ (Developing) in the area of governance” on its annual oversight visits. Despite all of these problems, CPA requested that the LAUSD renew its charter.