Updated: 3:51 p.m.Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015 | Posted: 9:43 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015

4 local charter schools under investigationfor attendance numbers

By Laura A. Bischoff

Columbus bureau

COLUMBUS — 

    Only 43 of the 153 students listed inattendance records at Dayton Technology High School were present when investigators from thestate Auditor’s Office conducted a random head count of 30 schools statewide,according to a report issued Thursday.

    The surprise head count uncovered widediscrepancies in the number of kids in class versus the attendance numbersreported by the schools to state officials, State Auditor Dave Yost said.Attendance discrepancies were found at three other Montgomery County-basedcharters — City DayCommunity School,Horizon Science Academy Dayton High School and Richard Allen Preparatory.

    On Oct. 1, Yost deployed 30 auditors to 30schools to take attendance. Yost found problems in 16 schools, includingsignificant attendance issues in seven charters that target drop out students.Among the seven is Dayton Technology Design High School, which issponsored by Dayton City Schools.

    Auditors showed up at 8:35 a.m. Oct. 1 atDayton Technology Design H.S. and found just 43 students in school — well belowthe 172 estimated enrollment given in July 2014 and below the 153 studentsreported to Ohio Department of    Educationby the school to be in attendance on Oct. 1. School Director Karl Perkins toldauditors that the headcount would be low because tardy students tend to arrivecloser to 9 a.m. and some log onto the computer from home, the report said.

    Yost’s team showed up again — unannounced —at 8:55 a.m. on Nov. 12 and counted 60 students at Dayton Technology DesignH.S. The audit also noted that the school didn’t notify ODE that it would offer“blended” learning where students take classes in person and online.

    Yost said ODE should investigate the sevencharters as well as nine other community schools where auditors found moderatevariances in attendance numbers. Among the nine are CityDay CommunitySchool, Horizon Science Academy Dayton High School and RichardAllen Preparatory.

    “I’m really kind of speechless in everthingthat I found. It is quite a morass,” Yost said.

Sandy Theis, executive director of ProgressOhio, a liberal think tank, said taxpayers and students are getting hurt. “Ithink they should raise hell, call their lawmakers and tell them to fix it,”she said.

    State funding for schools is based onstudent headcounts. Previously, public schools would conduct counts in thefirst week of October, which prompted Herculean efforts to get kids to show upthat week. But that changed this academic year to a requirement that schoolsreport their actual daily attendance throughout the year, said ODE spokesmanJohn Charlton. Charter schools are required to report their attendance figuresmonthly and funding is pro-rated based on those reports, he said.

    “We will take a serious look at this reportand work with the auditor’s office, like we always do,” Charlton said.

    In the 2012-13 academicyear, 115,324 students attended 367 charter schools, which collected a combined$824.6 million in state funding, according to an ODE annual report on communityschools.