Superintendent of Instruction for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, initiated an audit more than a year back into the financial concerns of the Alternatives for Youth and Opportunities for Knowing (OYO) schools. The OYO is a chain of independent research study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run but funded by the state.

1. Superintendent of Guideline for the California schools, Jack O'Connell, initiated an audit more than a year earlier
into the financial issues of the Choices for Youth and Opportunities for Knowing (OYO) schools. The OYO is a
chain of independent study charter schools within the California schools system, which are privately run but
funded by the state.
The OYO California schools serve students who have actually dropped out of the conventional high schools. They
presently have about 15,000 trainees in 40 store locations throughout the state. These California schools students
do the majority of their work at house, conference with instructors twice a week. According to state records,
trainee accomplishment test and high school exit exam scores are above average, as compared to other
alternative high schools within the California schools system. According to a Los Angeles Times post of August
10th, only 11 percent of OYO students graduated throughout the 2003-2004 school year. The remainder of
students that left school that year either dropped out, were expelled, or transferred to other schools.
The California schools' audit was performed by the Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Group, who
concluded their analysis and provided their findings in a report that was launched in August 2006. The audit
mentions accounting defects, overpayments by the state, disputes of interest, nepotism, excessive payment, and
mixing personal organisation concerns with public schools.
The OYO was founded and still operated by John and Joan Hall, previous instructors from Hollywood High School.
They have completely worked together with the California schools' audit, but dispute the majority of the findings.
Some examples from the audit report are:
• Accounting Problems and Overpayments. The Halls count each of their teachers as 1.92 full-time positions. Their
representative, Stevan Allen, specified that this is a common practice for charter schools in the California schools
system and is a genuine method for compensating school staff for longer days and year-round schedules.
California schools superintendent O'Connell believes teachers need to be counted only as one full-time position
each. The auditors disagreed, citing that traditional California schools teachers invest much less time working each
year than those at OYO. Nevertheless, the auditors believed the 1.92 quantity is pumped up. This example, alone,
represent over half of the $57 million overpayment.
Additionally, the report noted several doubtful costs. One example of unrestrained costs, given by the Times was
an $18,000 staff celebration held at Disneyland. Allen defended that event as an effort at relationship building
between employee, who are scattered across the state. He kept in mind that the costs was less than $50 per team
member.
• Disputes of Interest and Mixing Private Organisation with Public Schools. Besides the charter schools, the Halls
own and operate numerous private organisations that sell materials and services to schools. The Times noted that
the Alternatives in OYO was the nonprofit part of the setup, with the Opportunities part being for-profit. The audit
calls this practice and setup into question.
• Extreme Compensation. The audit also questions the combined incomes for the Halls, which is $600,000
annually. The report states that it may be extreme for the quantity of time the couple in fact works.
• Nepotism. The Halls developed a separate charity with $10.8 countless the California schools' financing, called
Pathways in Education. The charity is run by their daughter, Jamie Hall. Little cash has actually been invested
towards education so far.
The Halls contend that they formerly had requested guidance on their operation from the California schools lots
of times, however never ever got any reaction. Hence, they tried to follow California schools requirements as best
they could with their understanding of the policies. Even O'Connell conceded that none of the pointed out

2. practices are prohibited.
The audit suggests the California schools should try to recover the $57 million in overpayment from car donation
inland empire the OYO. O'Connell has actually sent the report to the state's lawyer general's office for evaluation
and any necessary action.