Arizona school may close after board moves to revoke charter

Nick Sullivan, Arizona Republic
·2 min read

A small charter school east of Phoenix may be forced to close at the end of this school year after regulators determined it wasn't meeting state standards.

The State Board for Charter Schools voted unanimously Monday to issue a notice of intent to revoke the charter contract of ARCHES Academy, which enrolls just under 50 students in Apache Junction, citing financial mismanagement and poor record-keeping practices. ARCHES did not meet six of nine operational performance measures.

Among more than a dozen other violations, the board found ARCHES failed to submit its annual audit on time and misreported payroll taxes and compensation to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ashley Berg, executive director of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, speaks during a meeting Sept. 10, 2018, at the Arizona Department of Education in Phoenix.
Ashley Berg, executive director of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, speaks during a meeting Sept. 10, 2018, at the Arizona Department of Education in Phoenix.

Ashley Berg, the state charter board's executive director, said the board could not comment on the motion or detail the next steps because it was "early in this legal process."

Charter operator Michelle Edwards told the board Monday that the K-8 school never intentionally fell out of compliance.

"Mistakes were made and compounded over time," Edwards said. "All compliance issues have been mistakes that we have learned from and have corrected as quickly as possible."

Edwards said ARCHES hired a new business manager to strengthen its financial systems, sent its school leaders to take financial best practices training under the Arizona Department of Education and adopted Project Momentum, a school performance framework funded by the department.

"There have been a series of unfortunate events, it sounds like," said board member Jessica Montierth. But she said she felt the board had to move to revoke the charter contract due to ARCHES' failure to meet expectations and its violation of state and federal law.

ARCHES opened in 2019 as a “holistic” option that groups students according to academic ability rather than age, according to its website. The Arizona State Board of Education gave the school a D rating in its A-F performance indicator system last year, suggesting ARCHES is minimally performing.

Reach the reporter at nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: School east of Phoenix may close after board moves to revoke charter