Sovereign Community School survives closure threat, but future still uncertain

A Native American-focused charter school in Oklahoma City is at risk of closure over financial dysfunction and paltry academic results, but members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education appeared hesitant on Thursday to advance toward termination.

Sovereign Community School serves 120 students in fifth through 12th grade with a curriculum focused on Indigenous culture. It operates at the former Seeworth Academy campus at 12600 N Kelley.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education on Thursday tabled a proposal to initiate termination proceedings with the school. Board members said they expect to vote on whether to begin the termination process next month, possibly setting up a significant vote in incoming state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters' first board meeting.

The board is the charter authorizer for Sovereign, meaning it approved the contract that allowed the school to open and gives oversight of the school's performance.

Sovereign is mired in about $500,000 of debt that the school is unlikely to be able to pay back in time, said Brad Clark, general counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

Clark said the school's carryover funds from the last fiscal year were "overstated and likely in the negative." State officials said poor accounting and spending practices have been pervasive and raise doubts the school could get back on track.

"We don't have any confidence about the proper controls going forward," Clark said. "As hard and as unfortunate as it is, this is the reality."

Spring state test scores show fewer than 15% of Sovereign students were on grade level in reading, math and science.

Clark recommended the state board issue a notice of termination. Sovereign would be allowed a hearing in 90 days in which the state board would review evidence and testimony before making the final decision on closure, after which it could have forced Sovereign to close on June 30.

The board declined to start that 90-day clock on Thursday, opting to give the school another month to get its books and academic improvement plans in order.

Supporters of Sovereign, some wearing tribal regalia, pleaded with the state board not to shut the school down. Sovereign urged its community to "pack the house" at the state board meeting in a call to action posted on the school's Facebook page Wednesday.

Ninth-grader Graison Yellowfish, who is Comanche, was in tears as she spoke in support of her school. She said she wants to stay at Sovereign because she was bullied over her Indigenous name in her previous public school system.

“I became very aware of how proud I should be to be Native and how confident I can be while in my regalia and while dancing,” Graison said.

Sovereign's school board president, Kendra Wilson-Clements, said the school suffered from a lack of quality leadership and accounting, but now the school has a fundraising plan and the right officials in place to make a turnaround.

The school hired Alison Black as head of school on Monday. Black said she has experience in running federal programs for Native students in public schools but is not a certified superintendent. She said she will work toward that certification.

“I am concerned with how someone is going to dig out of this position without that (superintendent) experience,” state schools Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in her final meeting in office.

Wilson-Clements said her consulting firm, We the People, will donate funds on Dec. 31 to cover the school's deficit. She said the school also received verbal commitments from three tribal nations to pay $5,000 for each Sovereign student enrolled in those tribes.

"I'm not in the business of writing checks to something that is going down the drain," Wilson-Clements said to the state board. "Allow us to demonstrate to you one last final time that we can turn this around."

Clark contended the Oklahoma Constitution and Sovereign's charter contract prohibit it from carrying over debt from one fiscal year to the next, meaning Sovereign would need to pay off its deficit before the last day of the fiscal year, June 30. The school's attorney disagrees with that opinion, Wilson-Clements said.

Sovereign struggled with financial viability from the start. It opened in 2019 with only a few dozen students enrolled, dramatically fewer than what the charter school needed to sustain the number of employees it hired.

That lack of enrollment landed the school in a steep financial shortfall that administrators said worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school furloughed and laid off employees in March 2020 and fired two superintendents in that calendar year. It is now on its fifth superintendent in four school years.

Sovereign's fiscal disarray and failure to turn in financial reports on time prompted the state Board of Education in November 2020 to drop its accreditation status to probation, one step above dissolving the school. The state Education Department recommended beginning the process to close the school in April 2021, but the state board declined.

At the time, the school's administrators pledged to grow enrollment and seek out tribal support to resolve the shortfall and pay off debts. Wilson-Clements, who has been the school’s board president for nine months and held a board seat even longer, said Sovereign didn't have a fundraising plan or strong relationships with tribal nations when it made those past promises, but the school does now.

"We did not have anyone on staff who knew how to run the business of school," she said of prior leadership. "I see that now."

Sovereign gained some financial support, officials said. Clark said in an April 2021 state board meeting the school received $1 million in nonprofit grants, but how it put that money to use was unclear at the time.

Santa Fe South Development Corp., the nonprofit that receives 95% of its funds from Santa Fe South Charter Schools, gave a $300,000 no-interest loan to Sovereign.

The state Education Department questioned the legality of the donation, and Santa Fe South's former charter authorizer, Oklahoma City Public Schools, requested State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd investigate it.

Byrd said her audit of Santa Fe South's finances will begin in early 2023.

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to note the length of time Kendra Wilson-Clements has been Sovereign's board president.

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: Future of OKC Sovereign Community School uncertain