Epic Charter School: Merger creates new name for Oklahoma's biggest school system
What's in a name? For Oklahoma's largest school system, it's Epic Charter School, with the loss of a single letter "s."
A consolidation of the virtual charter school's two branches became official Wednesday. Epic's school board voted unanimously to merge Epic One-on-One, an online-only learning platform, with Epic Blended Charter, which incorporates physical learning sites in Tulsa County and Oklahoma County.
Previously, the two branches were separate public school districts that together made up Epic Charter Schools. Now, they are a single entity.
The two branches educated 38,000 students this school year, more than any traditional district in Oklahoma.
Epic students will no longer enroll in one branch or the other. Employees will work for one school district instead of two. Budgets for both districts have combined into one $266 million pot.
Board Chairperson Paul Campbell said Epic projects the consolidation could save at least $4 million through improved efficiency.
"This is a huge step forward," Campbell said during the board meeting. "It takes a tremendous amount of administrative burden off this team trying to navigate two school districts when we were always operating really as one."
The Oklahoma State Department of Education confirmed its approval of the consolidation on Friday.
Another agency overseeing Epic, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, encouraged the merger as a way to avoid improper commingling of funds between the two districts. Oklahoma law prohibits money appropriated to one school district from flowing to another.
A third entity in charge of Epic Blended, Rose State College, will no longer authorize the school. A charter school authorizer earns 3% of the school's state revenue in exchange for giving oversight and approving a charter's right to operate in Oklahoma. Rose State earned $3.7 million from Epic over the 2015-2020 fiscal years.
The consolidated Epic will now answer to only one authorizer, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, a small state agency that oversees Oklahoma's six virtual charter schools. It has authorized Epic One-on-One since 2015.
The Statewide Virtual Charter School Board agreed Tuesday to remove a requirement that Epic house an internal auditing department. This and the consolidation were the final two obligations Epic had to meet to reach full compliance with a settlement agreement between the statewide board and the school.
Both parties reached a settlement last year after the statewide board threatened to close Epic One-on-One over a host of alleged contract violations. The school agreed to meet a litany of demands of improvement, particularly in how it handled its finances and governance.
Epic has suitable financial controls in place that employing an internal auditor is no longer necessary, Deputy Superintendent of Finance Jeanise Wynn told the statewide board at a meeting Tuesday.
Most importantly, Wynn said, is Epic now operates as a fully public entity with open access to its records. Any state agency or member of the public can request its financial documents for review.
A private company, Epic Youth Services, used to manage the school and sought to keep some records private. The owners of the company, Epic co-founders Ben Harris and David Chaney, have been charged with racketeering and financial crimes.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation reported Harris, Chaney and their chief financial officer, Josh Brock, used a private bank account of school funds for personal expenses and political donations.
Harris, Chaney and Brock have denied any wrongdoing.
Epic severed all ties with the co-founders and their company in May 2021.
Epic to pay former state senator over $500,000
When Harris and Chaney were still in charge of the school, Epic sued one of its loudest critics.
The school system accused former state Sen. Ron Sharp of libel and slander in 2019. The Shawnee Republican repeatedly accused Epic of misusing taxpayer dollars and counting student enrollment in an unlawful way.
An Oklahoma County district judge dismissed the lawsuit and awarded Sharp $500,000 in an anti-SLAPP ruling. Epic also must pay Sharp $35,000 to cover his attorney fees.
Epic's school board agreed Wednesday to pay Sharp.
"This school was weaponized back previously with the prior management company and (was) used inappropriately, really, against Sen. Sharp," Campbell said. "On behalf of the school, I wanted to apologize to him for what he went through."
Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at oklahoman.com/subscribe.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma's Epic Charter School merges, changes name
