Prime Prep Academy has scrambled from crisis to crisis, almost since the day it opened.
This week, the charter school co-founded by former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders entered the most critical period in its two-year existence. School officials have a Wednesday deadline to request an appeal challenging the Texas Education Agency’s efforts to revoke Prime Prep’s charter.
To complicate the situation for Prime Prep, the state Legislature last year placed new limits on charter schools seeking to appeal their revocations. School officials could know their fate in days, or the process could potentially last into the spring semester.
How it works
Prime Prep officials have previously said they would appeal and turn over any information that could help their case by this week’s deadline. School officials did not respond to interview requests, but they did schedule a pep rally for Tuesday night to generate support for their efforts.
In the educaton agency’s internal appeals process, called an informal review, staff will review the agency’s finding and documents submitted by Prime Prep. Staff will then review all documentation — there are no oral arguments — and provide their findings to Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams.
That process is expected to take about a month, which would coincide with the beginning of the fall semester.
All six charter schools that went through the full revocation appeals process in 2014 have had their appeals denied by the agency. However, those revocations were based on the Senate Bill 2 “three strikes” provision. Any school that has substandard academic or financial ratings for three straight years loses its charter.
Prime Prep’s circumstances are different. The education agency plans to revoke the school’s charter for failing to “satisfy generally accepted accounting standards of fiscal management” when it was cut from the National School Lunch Program.
Schools have said they have and will continue to provide meals, even without the federal funds.
School lunch problem
When the TEA announced July 15 that it intended to revoke Prime Prep’s charter, the agency had several ongoing investigations into the school. But the revocation effort was based on a single problem.
The Texas Department of Agriculture notified Prime Prep in April that it was terminated from the food program, which subsidizes meals for low-income students. Prime Prep received more than $200,000 a year through that program.
The Agriculture Department found serious problems with how the school ran the program in 2012 and again in2014. Many of the roughly 50 problems listed in the recent review were the same as in the previous one, according to the state.
Another element in the state’s decision was a default judgment against Prime Prep in a federal lawsuit accusing it of wrongdoing. The judgment against Uplift Fort Worth, Prime Prep’s nonprofit parent, was entered after attorneys failed to respond to the plaintiff’s claims.
Attorneys for Uplift Fort Worth said in court filings that the nonprofit was never legally served with the lawsuit. That issue is still pending in federal court.
Prime Prep has exhausted its appeals with the Agriculture Department. The school could still be readmitted to the program, but agency spokesman Bryan Black described a long process.
The school would need to pay off a nearly $46,000 debt to the Agriculture Department, which has approved its 12-month payment plan. The school would also have to go through the involved process of requesting to be taken off the excluded list and eventually reapply for the National School Lunch Program.
High hurdle
If Prime Prep loses its appeal, the case could then go to the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The independent agency conducts appeals for about 50 other state agencies.
Getting past the administrative law judge would be a high hurdle for Prime Prep. A reversal would happen if the judge determined the education agency’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” or “clearly erroneous.”
That appeal could take several months and would be the final stop for Prime Prep. SB 2 doesn’t allow revocations to be appealed to the traditional court system.
The entire appeals process could be finished before Labor Day if the education agency gives the school another chance. Or it could stretch into the new year if the entire appeals process is used.
The wild card is Williams, the state’s education chief. At any point during any of the appeals, he could strike an agreement with Prime Prep and allow it to keep operating, agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.
That happened recently with scandal-plagued Children’s First Academy. Its revocation appeal ended when it agreed to an improvement plan with the agency to fix its current problems and prevent them from recurring.
Prime Prep officials have previously said that they want to convince the state that these problems are part of the past and that the new administration is committed to the school’s turnaround.
