The Utah State Charter School Board is seeking more oversight to keep charter schools from failing.
It comes in the wake of this week’s bankruptcy filing by Treeside Charter School in Provo.
According to court documents, it owes nearly $475,000 to creditors.
The charter school is among several in recent months that have suffered from financial troubles.
While charter schools operate independently of the state school system in its district, they receive government funding from tax dollars.
On Thursday, the State Charter School Board passed a motion approving a plan to help dig St. George Academy out of its financial troubles and address enrollment issues.
The academy first received notice the board was concerned back in April, and it was in August when the state board formed a charter school task force.
It was in the wake of the closing of American International School of Utah in Salt Lake City.
It was after a state audit discovered the school misused money as well as scoring extremely low in student achievement.
Late Friday afternoon, Utah State Board of Education Chairman Mark Huntsman sent ABC4 a statement that says in part: “the State Board of Education has appointed a task force to study issues of charter school governance and accountability and looks forward to its report, we hope, in our December Board meeting. The goal of all of this is to provide better charter schools for students and better accountability for taxpayers.”
ABC4 did reach out to the Utah State Charter School Board for this report. We are still waiting to hear back.
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