Officials Report Additional Searches in Spending Probe
By V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 2, 2006; B04

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Investigators who raided the workplace and home of the D.C. Board of Education's executive director of charter schools Wednesday also searched the offices of a company hired by the board and took files from the city's other chartering agency, school and law enforcement officials said yesterday.

The searches were part of a probe into the possible misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal and city funds earmarked for programs to boost student achievement at charter schools, government and school sources said.

One of those programs is operated jointly by the Board of Education's charter school office, which oversees 17 of the city's 51 charter schools, and the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which oversees the other 34.

FBI agents conducted searches at the office and home of Brenda L. Belton, executive director of the Board of Education's charter school office. And investigators searched the offices of Equal Access in Education, which Belton's office hired to monitor the performance of charter schools, according to law enforcement sources.

In addition, Josephine Baker, executive director of the D.C. Charter School Board, said the D.C. inspector general's office visited her agency and confiscated files from the program that the two chartering agencies run jointly.

Carolyn N. Graham, the Board of Education vice president, said last night that board members knew nothing of the joint program until yesterday.

"The entire board is very concerned," Graham said. "How could we not know about this? How could these dollars be available and we not know about it? . . . We've not opined on the use of those dollars, and that's very problematic for us."

Baker said both agencies have been involved in the program since 2004. She said the agencies receive federal money -- distributed by the mayor's office under the federal No Child Left Behind law -- that is supposed to help low-performing charter schools raise student achievement.

Baker said that the money is managed by her agency and that the Board of Education's charter office submits invoices to receive its portion of the funds.

"We did everything under the standards under which we are expected to operate," she said. "We don't feel there's anything here that would entail an investigation of us."

Messages left on the cellphones of Belton and her attorney, Danny Onorato, were not returned yesterday.

School sources have said that investigators also are looking into possible connections between Belton and some of the contractors her office hired.

D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who chairs the council's education committee, said she expressed concern about the Board of Education's charter school office in March, when it sought to increase its budget by 7 percent, to $650,000. The council had doubled the budget the previous year after the office requested money to enlarge its staff, but no additional staff members were hired, Patterson said.

Staff writer Valerie Strauss and staff researchers Magda Jean-Louis and Meg Smith contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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Report Fans Flames in D.C. School Funding Debate
Critics Challenge Claim That Charters Get Less Per Pupil
By V. Dion Haynes and Lori Montgomery, Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; B07

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A newly released report by a Washington-based think tank added fuel yesterday to a running debate on whether the District's charter schools receive a fair share of public education dollars.

The study by the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an organization that supports school reform, says that charter schools in the District and states throughout the country receive less per-pupil funding than regular public schools in the same jurisdictions. It said the funding gap in the District was $3,552 per student, higher than the average disparity of $1,801.

But in releasing the report yesterday, the institute's researchers acknowledged that it was based on data from 2002-03 and that the funding of D.C. charter schools -- particularly their facilities allowance -- has increased significantly since then. In fact, the charter school movement here in some respects is a model for the nation, officials at the think tank said.

"D.C. has one of the most equitable funding mechanisms across the land," said Mike Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy at the Fordham Institute. "Local and federal officials should be congratulated for that."

Nevertheless, the report sparked renewed debate on whether the distribution of public dollars between D.C. charter and regular schools is fair, with some saying that the regular schools are getting shortchanged.

D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said he has not seen the study, but he disputed the notion that charter schools in the District receive significantly less per-pupil funding than traditional public schools.

By coincidence, Williams and a U.S. Department of Education official appeared yesterday morning at the Elsie Whitlow Stokes public charter school in Northwest Washington to announce that the city will receive an annual federal grant of $5 million for the next three years to help fund salaries and programs at new charter schools. The District has received similar awards over the past decade.

Williams praised the performance of D.C. charter schools, which enroll more than 15,000 students, or about 21 percent of total public school enrollment.

The mayor also said he disagreed with some city leaders, including Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), who have argued that the growth of charter schools could cause further deterioration of the traditional public school system.

"I think the best prescription for the system is to get competitive. . . . I think just artificially saying that we're going to shut off access and options for parents limits choices because it doesn't motivate the existing system to get its act together and continue to improve," Williams said.

Williams said he will try to persuade Cropp, who is expected to announce her campaign for mayor next month, to change her view of charter schools. "I hope . . . if I decide not to run, as a private citizen, I could convince her to feel differently," he said.

Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who chairs the education committee, has scheduled a hearing Oct. 6 to look into various aspects of the D.C. charter school law, including funding.

Charter schools are publicly funded but independently run and are exempt from many local and state education regulations.

The institute's 141-page report covers the District and the 16 states with the largest charter school enrollments. It concludes that in all but one of those jurisdictions, charter schools received less per-pupil funding than regular public schools, despite requirements for equal funding. Researchers attributed the disparity largely to the charter schools' inability to gain access to funding for capital expenses.

Brenda L. Belton, executive director of the D.C. Board of Education's charter school office, said the D.C. Council approved a $2,800-per-student allotment that charter schools can use to construct, purchase or lease a facility. The institute's researchers acknowledged that their data were from an earlier school year.

"No other state provides that," Belton said of the allotment. "The only problem is that you're in a hot real estate market, and the money doesn't buy you much."

Gina Arlotto, co-founder and president of Save Our Schools, a group that has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that traditional public schools are losing money to charter schools, said the facilities allowance is too generous.

Arlotto noted that city officials calculated the charters' allowance based on the regular school system's capital budget. She said the calculations were flawed because the capital spending for that period included several construction projects that were wildly over budget.

"Charter schools see themselves as the poor stepchild of the D.C. education scene. It's simply not true," she said.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

2 Workers From Charter Office Placed on Leave
By V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 3, 2006; B04

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The D.C. Board of Education put two employees from its charter school office on paid administrative leave yesterday while federal authorities investigate the possible misuse of public funds.

The board would not name the employees, citing personnel policies. But school sources identified them as Brenda L. Belton, the office's executive director, and Steve Kapani, the financial data analyst.

Belton appears to be at the center of an investigation into the handling of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds earmarked to boost achievement at low-performing schools, according to school sources. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing.

Officials decided to put Kapani on leave because he has been cooperating with authorities, and they wanted to prevent any possibility of retaliation, the sources said.

D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who chairs the education committee, said the school board told her yesterday that Belton was being put on leave. "I think that's the right course of action," said Patterson, who has been urging the board to address financial problems in the charter school office.

"My understanding is that (Kapani's leave) is not punitive," she added.

Belton's attorney, Danny Onorato, and Kapani declined to comment yesterday.

The FBI on Wednesday searched the school board's charter office and Belton's home, collecting numerous boxes of material. Investigators also searched the office of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, a separate entity that oversees 34 charter schools.

Another search took place at the property of Equal Access in Education, the company hired to monitor the Board of Education's charter schools. City records show that Equal Access is located in a house formerly owned by Belton and currently owned by her daughter.

The Board of Education asked the city auditor yesterday to review all the accounting records in the charter school office. It also appointed the board's executive director, Russell Smith, to run the office in the interim.

School sources said the D.C. inspector general's office and federal authorities are investigating the possible misuse of funds in a program operated jointly by the Board of Education's charter school office and the Public Charter School Board. The program uses $1.9 million in funds from the federal No Child Left Behind law, funneled through the city.

The Public Charter School Board administered the money. It was used, charter school board officials said, partly for teacher-training programs, tutorial services for students and outreach programs to inform parents about No Child Left Behind.

The Board of Education's charter school office submitted invoices and bills to receive its portion of the money from the federal program. Investigators are looking into possible connections between Belton and at least one vendor, the school sources said.

Officials from the charter school board said they were not the target of the investigation, adding that authorities appear focused on the Board of Education's charter school office and its involvement in the program.

Carolyn N. Graham, vice president of the Board of Education, said board members were not even aware that the charter school office was involved in the program. They directed Smith to investigate why the board was not told about the program and whether it should remain involved.

"I don't know if there was a letter notifying us of the money and the administrator [Belton] never released it to us or what," Graham said yesterday, adding that 40 percent of the money is designated for the Board of Education's charter schools.

In an unrelated investigation, federal agents conducted a raid Thursday at New School for Enterprise and Development, a public charter high school in Northeast Washington.

An official from the inspector general's office confirmed last month that an investigation involving the school is underway. Teachers and other staff at the school complained to investigators about the school's decision to pay a $100,000 salary to a board member who served as school president. They also alleged that the principal attempted to alter transcripts to improve the school's overall performance.

The charter school board revoked the school's charter, and the school is closing June 30.

Staff writer Eric M. Weiss contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Application to Charter Guidelines

Charter School Debate Delayed