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State: School inflated ailments
By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- The state Department of Education says a Hillsborough charter school has received too much money for the learning-disabled students it educates. The ruling, released Thursday, means Pepin Academy may have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars to the state. Parents say that could force the 4-year-old school to close. Pepin founder Crisha Scolaro disagrees with the state's preliminary findings. She said the review was flawed and biased. "We plan to protect the rights of our students," she said. "We will challenge any attempt to reduce any level of funding that they are entitled to by law." After reviewing a random sample of 24 Pepin Academy students in January, the state concluded the school received $350,952, or about twice as much as it should have. The school serves 175 students. Now the state is requiring Hillsborough school officials to review funding levels at all of the county's 16 charter schools. The ruling essentially sides with county administrators, who questioned Pepin's funding and sought a state opinion. "The school district has been very supportive of Pepin Academy," Hillsborough superintendent Earl Lennard said. "The issue boils down to the fact they were receiving funding the state indicated was not appropriate." The state's report angered and upset many Pepin parents. Some cried when they heard the news. "If they don't close, the services will be diminished," said parent Nancy Hernandez, whose 16-year-old son attends the school. "It will no longer be the Pepin we know." The state's findings cap an ongoing battle between the school district and Pepin, which has a total budget of $2.4-million. Though the district has financial oversight over the school, which receives public funding, Pepin is run by a private, nonprofit board. Beginning in the fall, district administrators stopped signing off on funding plans from the school, which is on E Hillsborough Avenue. They said the school was ranking its students at a higher need level than their disabilities warranted, thus receiving more money from the state for additional services such as counseling and therapy. Hillsborough administrators said Pepin received two and three times more money than regular public schools received when they educated the same children. The state found that all 24 students who were reviewed received more funding than they should. In four cases, the school got nearly three times too much. The school should have qualified for $5,170 for each of the four students, but instead received $14,623, the state said. State officials concluded that 99 percent of the school's exceptional students were receiving the fourth-highest funding level out of five. That is considerably more than both the state and district averages. Only 7 percent of all Hillsborough County disabled children are rated at the top two levels. Pepin board member and parent Steve Willis said many students are underserved in regular schools. "This is a school for learning-disabled children," he said. "Certainly, we're going to have a high percentage." Pepin and county officials have been warring for months. The tensions peaked in late January when the school refused to allow two county school officials to enter Pepin for a funding review. Dozens of parents have spoken out at board meetings in the last month. They see the school as an answered prayer for children who struggled both academically and socially in regular schools. Willis said the private school where his 12-year-old son Christian went before he enrolled at Pepin was unable to grade the boy because of his multiple disabilities. At Pepin, the boy is a well-adjusted, straight-A student, Willis said. Willis thinks the school district is trying to shut the school down. "It's a travesty," he said. "Parents have been searching for a school like this for as long as their child has had problems. I don't know one child who hasn't blossomed in this school." -- Melanie Ave can be reached at 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com .
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