Charter School Chief Resigns Amid Financial Mismanagement

Money management is the hardest part when obtaining funds. For example, statistics show that most lottery winners end up worse off, financially, then they were before they won the money. This is often due to the fact that these winners do not understand that this money is limited. This scenario often happens to not-for-profit businesses who are faced with massive grants, often around the same time, and must manage the funds throughout the year.

This situation was forced upon chief executive officer of Vialistic Therapeutic Charter School, Nancy Egan. Since 2010, she accuses the board of trustees and other administrations of having undermined her many attempts to fix the money management problems the school was facing. Funds that were specifically granted for additional programs for the students of the school were instead used to pay electricity bills. The lack of funds to pay for basic utilities may have arose from a recent internal audit that brought to light questionable payroll issues. Egan stated, "questionable issues regarding payroll, previously voted-on pay cuts, approved staff hours and pay rate, Capital Blue Cross coverage and issues regarding past-due payables" were found during this audit and were not addressed.

These comments did not come as a surprise. Last year, Vitalistic lost their mental health license after auditors found no evidence that more than $200,000 services billed to the state were actual cases. It seems that this was the tip of the iceberg. Unpaid loans given to the sister preschool were forgiven by Vitalistic. According to the law, charter schools are forbidden to lend money. These problems at Vitalistic are compounding and the only people truly getting hurt are the students.

Currently, the above stated sister preschool has been closed down, and almost half of the staff at Vitalistic have been laid off. The state auditor general is now investigating this school. It seems as if it will only be a matter of time until the school will be closed, leaving hundreds of children with special needs without the resource to help them. This situation needs to be cleared up, and a new management system forced into place.

Source: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-bethlehem-vitalistic-charter-school-ceo-resign-20120328,0,2966852.story