Academy of Learning and Academy of Design and Technology

“Charter school with troubled past wants to open in Norton.” Beacon Journal (OH), 1/8/2012 

A charter school is trying to open in Norton and compete with Norton City Schools for its students and state money, even though the district is rated excellent and generally should be off-limits to charter schools opening within its borders.

The school for grades K-4 calls itself the Academy of Learning and first appeared under that name in Doylestown last fall.

The Academy of Learning appears to have enrolled about a dozen children whose parents withdrew them from the excellent-rated Chippewa school district and told district officials the children would be home-schooled...

The Academy of Learning spent much of the past year looking for a new home when its original sponsor, Liberty Local Schools near Youngstown, severed ties last year because of the charter school’s “dysfunctional organizational structure” and failure to maintain financial records required for a state audit...

On Feb. 7, 2011, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost wrote a letter to Obermiyer and Liberty Superintendent Stan Watson informing them that the condition of records the district provided for an audit of the 2009-10 school year were not adequate and the district was now considered “unauditable.” Missing documents included “bank reconciliations for the entire period” and “bank statements for July and August 2010.”...

On May 26, Yost declared Liberty Local Schools to be in fiscal watch...

Meanwhile, Carlile and Obermiyer had already launched a quest to keep the charter school going in some form...

They approached North Central Educational Service Center in Tiffin, southeast of Toledo, in the spring.

In May, the North Central ESC passed resolutions approving the hire of Carlile and Obermiyer and the sponsorship of a new conversion school to be called Just for Kids in Doylestown...

But before formal contracts were presented to the board for approval, Lahoski discovered the problems that Liberty had with the state auditor. He said neither Carlile nor Obermiyer had said anything about the financial situation at Liberty during their many conversations...

“Liberty informed us that it was non-renewing and terminating the two schools’ contracts. So based upon that, we notified all the relevant offices that funding should cease with the end of the fiscal year and that’s what happened, ” said Joni Hoffman, who directs the state office overseeing charter schools. “That’s when it started to get very confusing...

However, the Portage County ESC issued a notice on Sept. 30 that it intended to suspend its sponsorship for “failure to provide learning opportunities in a manner consistent with law” and because the school had enrolled fewer than 25 students and was using an “unauthorized facility.”

The building issue was discovered by the Chippewa Township fire chief when he responded to a squad call at the J.A.S. Building and discovered a school in operation. But the building hadn’t been approved for a school...

The Academy of Learning has never officially changed its name, so as far as Portage County ESC and the state are concerned, it’s still the LEARN school. Its sponsorship is suspended, which means it can receive no state or federal funding. It has no official students...