On paper Mavericks High School has all the makings a good charter school. Catchy name? Check. Celebrity endorsements? Hell yes. Political pull? Right into the White House.
So what exactly is the problem? Well, there's the whole issue of proper usage of government funding, but does that really matter? Did we mention D-Wade is a fan?
The West Palm Beach-based charter school chain is no stranger to the pages of New Times. In late 2011 we cracked open the on-going legal shit-fling going on between the school's founders and former teachers in courtrooms all over the county. Now, the Palm Beach school district has weighed in with an audit draft highlighting further issues with the school's money flow.
The school, which is fronted by Frank Biden, brother to the Veep, has racked up past problems with accreditation, principal certification and educators with spotty records. So basically it's not your best bet for getting Junior into Barnard.
According to the latest examination of the school's books, Mavericks was over-funded by somewhere around $160,000 by the state. The reason this sum was inflated has to do with an extra 56 students reportedly attending the school but who in actuality did not. We're talking ghost kids, but with a hefty price tag.
See, under the charter set up, the state hands over a certain amount of money to charters for each enrolled student. How the school over-counted is a good question. The audit didn't find any evidence Mavericks purposely cooked their numbers. Bad attendance procedures resulted in the incorrect numbers.
But accusations of enrollment cooking has been flung toward the institution before -- notably by three former teachers who've filed lawsuits against the chain. Those suits prompted the audit.
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