MEETING PLANNED FOR CHARTER SCHOOL - CAROLINA INTERNATIONAL PARENTS ARE TALKING WITH STATE OFFICIALS; February 21, 2011; The Charlotte Observer (NC)
A handful of parents have contacted the N.C. State Board of Education concerning the leadership of Carolina International School, which survived an embezzlement case in 2008 that nearly forced it to close.About a dozen parents question how the current principal and assistant principal were hired for Cabarrus County's only charter school and how board of director meetings are run and documented under North Carolina's open records law. The group wants to start a dialogue with board members in hope to expand the school's board of directors and help prevent future problems…At the Feb. 10 meeting, the board voted to increase payments to the N.C. Department of Revenue to pay off tax liabilities stemming from the embezzlement. The school will have federal and state debt paid off by June 30, he said, and the financial change could make it easier to attract board members, said Elliott.The total debt from litigation fees, back taxes and interest from the 2008 embezzlement case reached upwards of $600,000, and the board of directors could legally have been bound to pay that debt had funds not been raised, said Elliott…A group of about a dozen parents examined board minutes from the summer of 2010 that document the school's hiring of the principal and assistant principal. Elliott is documented as seconding his own vote to go into a closed session. Board member and science teacher Megan McNutt, who was marked absent for the July meeting, is documented as seconding Sam Leder's vote to go into a closed session. Neither of these items have been updated or amended on current meeting minutes found on the school website as of Feb. 18.Concord attorney Sue Schneider's daughter is a sixth-grader at CIS. She wants the state to get involved to ensure the board and the principal are adhering to school bylaws, which include running meetings using "Robert's Rule of Order, Revised," an updated version of parliamentary procedure that dates back 200 years.She about 10 other parents are asking the state to better police the charter school's meeting activity and help fully disclose the search process for finding potential principal and assistant principal candidates during the "relatively short" hiring process…The school had faced struggles after Sandra Vielbaum, the school's former finance officer, in 2008 was charged and later convicted of embezzling $195,000, leaving the school in financial straits. The school was in danger of closing, as it faced a deficit of $400,000, but school leaders secured $380,000, with help from parents and loans, which allowed the school to remain open…
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