School’s charter revoked

The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools formally shuts down Discovery Creemos Academy, the Goodyear school that abruptly closed in January.

The state’s charter board has formally shut down the Goodyear charter school that abruptly closed in January — months after the board had allowed the financially and academically failing school to continue despite concerns.

The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools at its meeting Monday voted unanimously to revoke the charter for Discovery Creemos Academy, with little discussion among board members.

The decision takes away the ability of Daniel Hughes, president and CEO of Discovery Creemos Academy, to operate charter schools in Arizona. But the move did little to quell the outcry from out-ofwork teachers who faulted the state for not intervening in the troubled school.

“I think the teachers are feeling it’s far too little and way too late,” said Phoenix attorney James Green. He is representing about 30 displaced teachers in forthcoming litigation against Hughes over unpaid wages.

“It’s way after the fact,” Green said. “The school’s already closed. The teachers have already lost their jobs.”

The school’s Jan. 30 closure disrupted the learning of more than 100 students, left dozens of teachers without jobs and drew the ire of longtime critics of how the state regulates its charter schools.

Discovery Creemos Academy, formerly called the Bradley Academy of Excellence, had chronically low state test scores and was millions of dollars in the red prior to closing.

Tax records from 2015 show Hughes reimbursed himself hundreds of thousands of dollars for “purchases on behalf of the school” and “reimbursements of amounts due.”

An internal audit reviewed by the state charter board last year found the school had a deficit of $3.34 million in net assets at the end of June 2016.

But that alone was not enough for

the state to intervene.

The state charter board oversees Arizona’s 550 public charter schools. It has the power to approve charter-school applications and can shut down schools that break the law or repeatedly fail academically.

But the board doesn’t have the authority to close down a school for financial reasons alone.

Kathy Senseman, president of the state charter board, said Monday that the board had been actively investigating Discovery Creemos Academy “for more than a year.”

Senseman told reporters following the board meeting that the board had been working with the state Department of Education and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office to obtain “legal findings” so it could shut down the school.

But Senseman said the board did not yet have enough evidence that the school was breaking the law to intervene when Hughes decided to shut the school down on his own.

“My heart goes out to (the displaced teachers), but there’s nothing this board can legislate or do to go after bad actors” such as Hughes and Discovery Creemos Academy, Senseman said after the meeting.

The state charter board in June unanimously had agreed to allow Discovery Creemos Academy to continue to operate for at least 20 more years.

Senseman grilled Hughes at that June 12 meeting about why his school kept posting failing test scores. Other members questioned the school’s financial stability and practices.

Hughes, who has not spoken publicly about the school closure, assured charter board members during that June meeting that he would turn around the financially and academically failing school.

Hughes told board members at that time that he and his wife were committed to upholding the school’s “calling” of giving a quality education to low-income students, many of them minorities.

Hughes has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

“Hearing the stories about this situation today have been very concerning to me,” said Jim Swanson, a charter board member and CEO of building company Kitchell Corporation.

“I think it is an absolute necessity that we look at all of the accountability across the system and make sure that we are protecting the children of Arizona,” Swanson said.

Monday’s remarks fell short for Michelle Miller, one of the dozen displaced Creemos teachers who attended Monday’s meeting,

“Just saying they’re sorry, it’s a little too late for that,” Miller said, “because now we don’t have jobs.”