Second finding for recovery issued

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

For the second time in two months, the state auditor’s office has issued findings for recovery in an audit of the now-closed Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts.

The audit released Thursday lists $54,570 in findings for recovery, $30,403 of it against Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church.

The charter school operated inside Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church on Oak Hill Avenue and closed at the end of the 2010-11 school year, citing declining enrollment. The school had operated for 10 years.

A July special audit issued more than $352,000 in findings for recovery.

The latest audit’s findings against the church are for electricity and telephone charges paid by the school.

The school entered a lease agreement with the church in September 2002 that said the church was responsible for those costs.

“A review of the financial records of Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts shows that the academy paid for electricity and telephone in the amount of $30,403,” the audit by state Auditor Dave Yost’s office said.

Elder C. Shawn Tyson, pastor of Mount Calvary, was out of town Thursday and couldn’t be reached.

The other findings are against the school’s fiscal officer, business manager and a board member for payments made for various services or for reimbursements without appropriate documentation.

There were other citations in the audit that don’t involve findings for recovery.

It says that the school property withheld Youngstown city income taxes from employee payroll checks but didn’t file a return and remit the taxes to the city.

The amounts withheld in 2004 and 2005 total more than $75,000.