Public charter schools file suit over private owner

May 18, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A group of publicly funded Ohio charter schools filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the authority of the private management company that runs them, one of the largest for-profit charter-school operators in the nation.

In the lawsuit, the governing boards of Hope Academies and Life Skills Centers in Cleveland and Akron asked to break their contracts with Akron-based White Hat Management LLC and to prevent the company from interfering in school operations until issues raised in the suit are resolved.

White Hat’s president, Akron industrialist David Brennan, is a generous Republican campaign contributor who pushed for the law that governs the schools. In a statement accompanying the suit, the schools said White Hat was able to manage “total, unchecked and unconstitutional control” over them as a result of Brennan’s influence in the Ohio General Assembly.

“White Hat Management is a for-profit company. Its interest in making a profit often conflicts with the schools’ goal to educate and show student progress,” said April Hart, legal counsel for the schools. “There are no real rules in place to make White Hat fully account for the nonprofit dollars they receive to manage Ohio charters.”

A message left with Brennan’s office seeking a comment wasn’t returned Monday.

The schools’ management agreements are set to expire June 30, said spokesman Carlo LoParo, and the schools allege that White Hat has been unwilling to renegotiate terms they describe as unconstitutionally cumbersome. They are concerned that not renewing the contracts as they’re written could jeopardize their charters, the lawsuit says.

LoParo said the schools are willing to consider new agreements with White Hat, but they want new terms that the company has been unwilling to grant.

Through the current management agreements, White Hat has control of 96 percent or more of the public money received to run the schools and has the power to terminate teachers, administrators and board members.

The schools charge that they have been given scant accounting information to assess how the public money for their facilities is being spent, making it difficult for them to assess their financial positions as they renegotiate their contracts.