MINNEAPOLIS — Dozens of students and their families at the JJ Legacy School in north Minneapolis are looking for a new school after the school board voted to close.
School directors said JJ Legacy owes money to the state, because of what the school blamed on an accounting error, and it can't stay open.
The decision to close the school was officially announced during an emergency board meeting on Friday, where school directors revealed some concerning numbers.
"It was really hard. Lots of tears. Lots of families were in shock. Teachers were in shock,” JJ Legacy parent and educator Bisola Wald said.
School directors said the financial problems are due to accounting errors with their enrollment numbers.
Charter Schools receive funding from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) based on their enrollment.
An MDE spokesperson said the school was receiving funding for 183 students, but the actual number of enrolled students at the school was 61.
School directors said due to this discrepancy, the school was receiving about three-times more money than it should have.
Directors said their new accountant and charter authorizer discovered the discrepancy.
Based on their numbers, directors said the school had already received $40,000 more than they should for the entire 2023-24 school year.
Directors said the state prepared to stop sending payments to the school starting on Jan. 15, and the school didn’t have any cash reserves to fall back on because the school is about $700,000 in debt.
"We understand now as a community the school has debt because debts were not paid by the accountant,” Wald said.
School directors said their old accountant left abruptly and they went several months without one.
"We still don't -- no one -- knows where she is. So, that is something that is disheartening,” Wald explained.
Directors said a new accountant was hired in August and after months of looking through records they discovered the enrollment discrepancy and a sizable amount of debt.
Directors don't know how the discrepancy happened, however, directors did say that enrollment at the school at its high point was around 140 students.
That number shrank to about 110 students during the 2022-23 school year and then shrank again to about 57 before growing to 61 students during the current school year.
"They will have to do an investigation to figure out the details of exactly when and who -- all those kind of things,” Wald said.
School directors are now working to place every student and teacher with a new school.
Several charter schools, including Excell Academy in Brooklyn Park, have already reached out offering to help.
Meanwhile, parents and teachers are still heartbroken wondering how this happened and how it went unnoticed for so long.
"I wish I had the answers. I’m frustrated and want to know more. The entire admin team and teachers we would all like to know,” Wald said.
KARE 11 also reached out to the school’s charter authorizer to comment on the situation.
A charter authorizer is a public oversight entity that is approved by the state of Minnesota to authorize charter schools.
Erin Anderson from Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center is the authorizer for JJ Legacy.
She responded to our request for comment with this statement:
“The JJ Legacy Board's vote to close the school is in the best interests of the children and families at the school. Given the significant debt from previous years and cash flow restrictions for the remaining school year, the Board was left with no other choice. Osprey Wilds is glad that the children and families of JJ Legacy, as well as staff, are able to transition to other schools and an orderly closure of the school can now occur.”
KARE 11 asked follow-up questions to clarify whether Anderson believed this situation was caused by an honest accounting mistake, or whether a criminal investigation could reveal any wrongdoing.
Anderson replied by saying, “We’re still working through the specifics around this closure and I don’t have any additional information for you at this time.”
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