KIPP Academy Charter School-Bronx

A $2 BILLION DECISION: THE CASE FOR REFORMING NEW YORK’S CHARTER SCHOOL LAW, April 2010, New York State United Teachers

…Before the Charter School Association went to court to block the State Comptroller from conducting audits and from having oversight authority for how charters spent public funds, the Office of the State Comptroller did complete a handful of charter audits that found:

The KIPP Academy Charter School’s director took the entire teaching staff on a five-day Caribbean retreat at the end of the school year for two years in a row. School personnel lodged at an all-inclusive resort that provided meals, alcoholic beverages, and overnight lodging, and the school paid for the airfare for the staff. The Comptroller’s audit said, “There was scant evidence that any educational type of program was provided during the trip, or that any learning activities were involved.” School officials contended that these trips were an appropriate use of donated funds, although they could not document that the trips were paid for by using donated funds. The audit also found the school director granted a 19 percent pay raise to the school’s chief financial officer without board approval…

…Management at the KIPP Academy Charter School-Bronx used $68,000 of taxpayers’ money to fund five-day staff retreats to resorts in the Bahamas and Dominican Republic, as well as on alcohol and parties. The school sent 21 staffers to the town of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic at a cost of $1,119 per person and 49 employees to the Radisson Cable Beach in Nassau, the Bahamas, for $907 per person. KIPP officials told auditors the retreats were educational and the agenda included “reflection sessions” and “solutions conversations.” In response to claims by KIPP the money came from private donations, the auditors said it was impossible to verify where the money came from because of sloppy bookkeeping…