The Family Foundations Academy will remain open.
The State Board of Education decided Thursday to renew the school’s charter on the recommendation of state Education Secretary Mark Murphy. The board also agreed with Murphy that the charter school be placed under formal review, which forms a committee to determine whether an institution is violating its charter.
State officials says Family Foundations has met the standards set by state’s Academic Framework for the past two years.
The future of FFA’s charter was placed in doubt after a recent audit found that two former co-leaders of the school used more than $94,000 on school credit cards for personal use. The State Auditor’s office is performing its own investigation of the matter.
Murphy says the school's recent moves to address those financial and organizations issues played a role in his recommendation. Those moves include firing the school co-leaders and reorganizing of school's board, including the resignation of the majority of board members and election of five new members. Murphy also noted that the new board elected officers, all of whom have experience in the same roles at another charter school, and brought in Dr. Lamont Brown, head of school at East Side Charter, to assist in overseeing family Foundations' operations.
New FFA board chairman Charles McDowell joined the school’s board along with three other members from the East Side Charter School’s Board earlier this week.
McDowell says he and the other new board members are not concerned with the probationary status, adding they are confident they can fix any leadership issues at an otherwise well-performing school.
"It’ll take us some more time to fully investigate and understand and put everything right, but we’ll be able to do that in a couple months. We’ll be able to get off formal review before very long," said McDowell. "We’re really looking forward to being a part of Family Foundations and making it go from good to great."
The state Education Secretary has 60 working days after the notice of formal review is given to a charter school to issue his decision.
Family Foundations serves students in grades kindergarten through 8 at its elementary school in New Castle and middle school in suburban Wilmington.