Na Wai Ola, a Puna-based public charter school, needs to make some big decisions — and soon — in order to keep its charter and ultimately stay open. ADVERTISING Na Wai Ola, a Puna-based public charter school, needs to make
Na Wai Ola, a Puna-based public charter school, needs to make some big decisions — and soon — in order to keep its charter and ultimately stay open.
The school’s March 31 financial reports revealed it wouldn’t have enough cash to sustain operations through July 20, the date all schools receive their first allocation of per-pupil state funding. Further review showed the school erroneously estimated that shortfall to be $33,569 when it’s actually closer to $50,000, according to a financial update submitted this week to the state’s Public Charter School Commission.
The deficit problem prompted commission staff to meet with the school May 5 to go over financial options. If the school receives “all cash it is expecting by June 30” and foregoes all other payment obligations other than payroll for May and June, it could end the year around $27,000 in the black. However, Na Wai Ola also could end the year with a deficit as high as $108,957 and be unable to make payroll July 5, the update says.
Hawaii law states if a charter school does not make payroll, it automatically surrenders its charter. “They have to make payroll or they shut down,” commission spokeswoman Sheryl Turbeville said.
The financial update shows Na Wai Ola’s governing board is also in hot water. The commission issued a “Notice of Deficiency” to the school on May 4 because four of its board’s seven members are either employees or vendors of the school. Law requires the board to be comprised of no more than one-third employees or vendors.
Turbeville said the school plans to submit a “corrective action plan” to explain how it intends to fix the problem.
In November, the commission issued a “Notice of Concern” for the same issue, and while the board “attempted to address this situation,” the problem remained.
Nai Wai Ola says on its website it’s an “Agri-Science based learning community that is committed to bringing forth individual academic excellence with Hawaiian culture and values as the guiding principle.” The school, which accommodates keiki from pre-kindergarten through seventh grade, reportedly has about 200 students.
This isn’t the first time it’s had trouble. In 2009, Na Wai Ola almost shut down after the state revoked its charter due to financial mismanagement. Principal Daniel Caluya, who was new at the time, helped the school correct itself financially, and in 2011, it was named the “Most Improved Charter School” by the Hawaii Public Charter Schools Network.
In 2014, it was even named the state’s Charter School of the Year.
Things have since turned upside down. In December, the school was seeking funds to make payroll after reporting it had overextended itself this school year. Caluya said at the time it had taken on extra expenses by re-instating its seventh-grade and pre-kindergarten programs which necessitated leasing a new portable classroom for students, a large portion of whom are homeless. The school plans to eliminate seventh grade again next year, according to Turbeville.
A call to Caluya on Friday was not returned by deadline.
Last week, a letter obtained by the Tribune-Herald revealed the school is also under investigation by the state Ethics Commission for allegedly paying school employees $64,564 in salary advances between July 25, 2012, and Sept. 1, 2015.
