Remember feds' search of Erie Rise charter school and community center? Focus is disclosed

Shortly before the troubled Erie Rise Leadership Academy Charter School shut down its operations for students at the end of June 2023, investigators with the U.S. Department of Education searched its offices and the offices of an Erie community center.

The department confirmed the search at the time, but provided no details and said it still has nothing new to report.

But details of the investigation have emerged in Erie County Common Pleas Court, where the Erie School District wants a judge to order Erie Rise to turn over bank statements and other records as the district tries to speed up the financial dissolution of the former charter school.

The search of the Erie Rise offices on June 7 concerned a multimillion-dollar federal grant for after-school programs for students from low-income families, a consultant with Erie Rise testified at a hearing on the Erie School District's request on Thursday.

The investigators that same day searched the offices of the Booker T. Washington Community Center at East 18th and Holland streets in Erie. The center had partnered with Erie Rise to implement the program under a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant.

The government first awarded Erie Rise the grant in 2017, and it started at $400,000 a year over three years. The grant ended in 2023.

The consultant said the investigators at Erie Rise removed computers that have yet to be returned, which he said has stymied some of Erie Rise's efforts to gather information for the school district.

Asked about the search on the witness stand, the consultant, Christian Anderson Sr., of Maryland, said the search warrant showed the investigation was about Erie Rise's 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant.

"The focus of the audit was that," said Anderson, who corrected himself to say he meant "investigation" rather than "audit."

He said had no further information on the search and had been working with the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General to get the computers back.

As to the state of he investigation, Anderson said, "We haven't heard anything at this point."

Feds took computers, files of Erie Rise officials, witness says

The other witness who testified Thursday was Neal Brokman, the assistant Erie schools superintendent who is the liaison to charter schools. He said investigators during the search took "all top-level executives' files and computers" at Erie Rise but said he had no further information. He said he has heard nothing new about the search.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education told the Erie Times-News by email on Thursday that the department has no new information to release on the investigation.

The federal government funds the 21st Century grant program and the Pennsylvania Department of Education administers it. The grants are to establish community learning centers for after-school programs. The Booker T. Washington Center received funding from Erie Rise to provide services as part of the grant program, according Erie Rise financial records.

The probe of the grant has been looming over Erie Rise since it closed to students on June 30, 2023. The school, which had been leasing the former Emerson School building at West 10th and Cascade streets, shut down after the Erie School Board voted in January 2023 to revoke its charter due to poor academic performance and other issues.

Erie Rise left its building at the end of November. Erie Rise has maintained offices at the Booker T. Washington Center as the school moves to complete a state-required financial dissolution.

Erie School District gets records from Erie Rise on eve of hearing

The Erie School District, as Erie Rise's chartering agency, has oversight of the school and is arguing that the dissolution should have occurred by now. Taxpayers funded Erie Rise, with the Erie School District sending it $3.4 million in 2023.

The district has gone to court to ask Judge Marshall Piccinini to order Erie Rise to turn over financial documents. The district said it needs the records to identify Erie Rise's remaining public funds and other assets, most of which are to revert to the district.

The district also wants Piccinini to appoint a receiver that would take over the dissolution process from Anderson, the Erie Rise consultant. Thursday's hearing was about the requests for documents and a receiver.

After months of failing to provide the Erie School District the requested records, Erie Rise at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday emailed the district a trove of documents, according to testimony.

The district's lawyers and Brokman, the assistant superintendent, said at the hearing that they need more time to review all the documents. They said they remain concerned that the district has yet to receive all the documents to which it is entitled.

Piccinini said he would rule later on the district's request for more documents and the request for a receiver.

In the meantime, he gave Anderson and the lawyer for Erie Rise, Zainab Shields, of Philadelphia, 24 hours to provide the school district a timeline of dissolution of the former charter school. Anderson and Shields said they would comply.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Testimony reveals focus of feds' search of Erie Rise charter school