School to regain financial control

Deerwood Academy receives a "trial period" six months after $115,000 in taxpayer money was found missing.

LAND O'LAKES - Deerwood Academy has lost much of its ability to operate freely. Now it's about to be paroled.

Six months after $115,000 in taxpayers' money was found to have inexplicably vanished from academy coffers, Pasco County school officials are giving the charter school a three-month "trial period" to see if it can manage its affairs again.

At a meeting Tuesday with school board members to discuss charter schools, Pasco schools superintendent John Long said the district gradually will turn financial control over to the school through July 1.

During the transition, a school district bookkeeper will continue to oversee the Port Richey middle school's finances. Ken Brown, the River Ridge assistant principal named by Long as acting director of Deerwood, will remain at the helm for at least the rest of the year.

Should the charter school's ruling board prove its competence at the end of three months, Long suggested giving it freer reign, although Brown could remain as director next year.

"It would be good for both them and us if Ken is over there," Long told the school board Tuesday.

Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run. The idea behind them is to give parents and communities resources to manage their own public schools.

Deerwood got in trouble when $115,000 - about 10 percent of the $1.29-million it has received from taxpayers since opening in August 2001 - was discovered missing late last year.

The investigation has centered on Jeffrey Alcantara, 50, the former right-hand man of Deerwood's founder, Hank Johnson. Alcantara dealt with school vendors, and his teenage daughter acted as school bookkeeper.

Alcantara has not been charged in the Deerwood case, but has a history of credit card fraud, theft and drug convictions. He served two years in federal prison for fraud.

On Tuesday, Long said a state attorney has completed a report on the Deerwood case and passed it to his superior for review. State Attorney Bernie McCabe on Tuesday classified the status of the case as "an active investigation."

Deerwood has suffered an enrollment drop this year from 230 to 171, mostly likely fallout from the money probe. To keep its books balanced, the school would like to teach about 200 students.

The Deerwood case illustrates the muddied relationship between public schools and the charters within their district. As Long told the school board, the state wants superintendents to keep their hands off charter schools. But if those schools get in trouble, the public is supposed to clean up the mess.

"It's a puzzle. I don't think anyone knows exactly what our role is," Long said of the county's six charter schools.

The school board heard reports on three other charters schools Tuesday: Academy at the Farm, Richard Milburn Academy and Dayspring Academy. None had problems remotely close to Deerwood's.

Reports from two other charters, Language Academy and Countryside Montessori, are due in about a month.

School officials suggested rewriting contracts for charter schools to include financial penalties if they flout state standards. Otherwise, public schools might have to bail out their privately run counterparts.

"We can't let their problems take money out of our classrooms two years from now," Long said.