Charter School Officials Refuse to Discuss Audits

Officials of Los Angeles’ struggling charter school for dropouts refused Monday to publicly discuss audit allegations of mismanagement and lavish spending, sparking sharp criticism from the school board.

Los Angeles Unified School District excerpts of a management audit of Edutrain Charter School, which were obtained by The Times but have not been publicly released, question alleged school expenditures ranging from a $500-a-month housing allowance for the principal to $7,000 for a secret staff retreat in Carmel.

Citing a threatened lawsuit by a former school employee over release of the audit by K H Consulting Group, Edutrain’s board president, Winston Doby, told the Los Angeles Unified board Monday at a meeting it held on Edutrain that he could only discuss the findings in closed session.

But school board members refused to close the meeting, saying that even charter schools should be reviewed publicly despite 1992 legislation allowing them to operate largely independent of their parent districts. The board had agreed to wait until Monday to discuss the contents of the management audit and a separate financial audit of Edutrain, then decide in a week whether to continue funding the Downtown school.

“In my opinion, Edutrain Charter School is in fact a public entity and they must--as we must--stand up for public scrutiny,” said board member Leticia Quezada.

Doby also asked the board to look forward instead of backward in making its final decision. He reiterated Edutrain’s progress in recent months, beginning with layoffs of teachers, staff and administrators and a fundamental restructuring of the school’s educational program. Edutrain deserves a second chance, Doby said, to work its “magic” on former dropouts, 68 of whom were graduated last year.

But board members said they find it difficult to think about the future when they have so many unanswered questions about the past.

“As a banker, I need to know what happened to the last loan before I can give you a new loan,” said board member Warren Furitani.

Edutrain, which opened in July, 1993, had burgeoned to more than 500 students by spring, 1994. Then after it suffered through outside investigations and internal squabbles, its enrollment dropped to about 100 students this fall.

Acknowledged overestimations of enrollment and poor financial record-keeping have left the school in debt at least $500,000, according to district staff estimates and the financial audit reviewed by the board Monday.

The financial auditor, Douglas R. Hart of KPMG Peat Marwick Co., said he found many weaknesses in Edutrain’s accounting procedures. But he said the problems seemed solvable.