Oklahoma City based Sovereign Community School was placed on probation last week. The Indigenous-led charter school's downgrade comes amidst financial struggles and missed reporting deadlines.
Last June, Sovereign Community School took out a $700,000 loan in order to keep their doors open. Their hope was that increased enrollment would bring in more state aid dollars to pay down the loan. That didn't happen.
Officials at the school say an outbreak of coronavirus cases forced them to switch to online learning and that many families chose to enroll their students in Epic One-on-One Charter school instead. The drop in enrollment led to layoffs and questions about whether Sovereign Community School could pay its debts.
Approval of that loan hinged upon the Indigenous-led charter school presenting monthly financial reports to the Oklahoma State Board of Education and an audit. Neither of those things have happened.
The audit is now scheduled for late November after being shifted due to the pandemic and the late October ice storm.
Sovereign Community School will remain on probation until the end of the 2020-21 school year.
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