As the sponsor, Rose State College received 2.75 percent of the charter school’s State Aid allocation the first year and three percent thereafter according to their 2017-2022 contract. The school reported it accommodated 7,000 students during the 2018-19 school year at its three sites.Įpic Blended Charter Middle School received $23 million in State Aid during its first year in operation (2017-18) and $40 million the following school year (2018-19). Sharp is concerned because Epic turned in enrollment numbers for the 2017-19 school years for grades Pre-K through 12th and both years, the OSDE provided a state allocation to the school for all of the grade levels. The school’s website relates it will open a new facility in Midwest City for grades 7th-12th during the 2019-20 school year. Epic’s Assistant Superintendent of Communications Shelly Hickman verified in an email to Senate staff on June 24, 2019, that the school only provided those grades during those years. Sharp pointed out that Epic Blended Charter School’s website shows that during the 2017-18 school year it only accommodated Pre-K through 5th grade and Pre-K through 6th grade during the 2018-19 school year. In 2018, an additional site was opened at another Oklahoma City church.
The school opened in Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties in the Fall of 2017 with two sites (an Oklahoman City church and a Tulsa office building). While he believes the fee is unreasonable, Sharp is more concerned with why the agency will not address the suspicious discrepancy in Epic Blended Charter School’s state funding.Įpic Blended Charter School was created in May 2017 under the Oklahoma Charter School Act and is sponsored by Rose State College. Under the Oklahoma's Open Records Act, public entities may charge limited fees for the cost of searching and copying public records.
“I’m especially disturbed by the agency’s unwillingness to provide information given that I’ve pointed out that Epic Blended Charter School received state aid for grades they didn’t provide. The public expects us to be good stewards of their money and we must hold our state agencies, including the State Department of Education, accountable for their spending,” said Sharp, R-Shawnee.
“The legislature should have access to any and all financial information from the state agencies we’re entrusted to fund and oversee. Sharp is seeking information as to why the OSDE provided allocations to Epic Blended Charter School for grade levels the charter school has acknowledged publicly it did not provide accommodation or instruction for during the 2017-19 school years. In June, OSDE’s legal counsel responded that there would be an $850 fee for the labor required to provide the financial information. The agency told the senator they were working on his Open Records request but after nearly three months of receiving no answers, the senator’s request was placed on hold. Ron Sharp, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, requested financial information from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) regarding funding to one of the state’s largest public brick and mortar charter schools.
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