Epic board meeting postponed
A school board meeting for Epic Charter Schools has been postponed because of COVID- 1 9 exposures.
Two of the four members on the board of Community Strategies Inc., the board of education for Epic, have been instructed to quarantine. As a result, the board lacked the necessary quorum to conduct its meeting, which had been scheduled for Monday evening.
Public meetings can no longer take place virtually in Oklahoma after legislative approval expired Nov. 15.
"We will have to cancel and will be rescheduling ," Epic announced in a statement.
The five-person board was missing a member already after Liberty Mitchell re signed in October. Epic, a virtual charter school system, has grown into the largest public school district in the state.
The board planned to vote on more corrective action following a scathing state audit, which was released Oct. 1. The Oklahoma State Auditor &Inspector' s Office reported widespread fiscal mismanagement at Epic and poor oversight from the Community Strategies board and other entities tasked with holding the virtual charter school accountable.
Although Epic disputes most of the audit report, the Community Strategies board approved new internal controls over school finance sat its previous meeting in October. The board agreed to hire an encumbrance clerk for Epic to separate that position from Chief Financial Officer Josh Brock. Monday' s meeting agenda included a vote to install Dori Williams as the encumbrance clerk for both Epic One-on-One and Epic Blended Centers.
The agenda also shows discussion and possible action on management and accounting of funds, contracting and purchasing. The board was scheduled to vote on a resolution with Regent Bank to authorize board Chairman Doug Scott and Secretary Betsy Brown to sign for a $25 million loan.
Epic didn' t specify a new meeting date. Reporter Nuria MartinezKeel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @ NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at oklahoman.com/subscribe.