The charter board must adopt new bylaws, approve a new conflict-of-interest policy; hire new legal counsel and auditor and retain a management organization with charter school expertise to advise the new charter board to make sure the school is meeting the conditions and abiding by all local, state and federal laws.
Specifically, the trustees were put on notice that Philadelphia Academy must meet the state charter law's admission policies which require new students to be chosen by lottery to ensure that the school has a diverse population. The charter's 2007 annual report indicates the student population is 87 percent white.
In mid-April, the commission deferred acting on Philadelphia Academy's charter renewal application to give the School District's inspector general time to complete an investigation of allegations of financial mismanagement, nepotism, and conflicts of interest. The decision came a day after The Inquirer disclosed the allegations and reported that Gardiner, and O'Shea, a former police officer with a high school diploma, were being paid more than most area school superintendents.
The inspector general's investigation is continuing but the commission said they were ready to renew the charter, provided the changes were made.
Philadelphia Academy is also the subject of a federal criminal probe. Lawyers from the firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll are also conducting an internal investigation for the charter's board.
In a bid to ensure that the charter would be renewed, five of the six members of the original board agreed last month to resign in staggered intervals by July 31. The sixth member, a parent who had been on the board for several years, has since also agreed to step down.
