Probe assails charter's spending

The report says Constance O'Shea succeeded in removing the hard drive and locked it in a file cabinet. Three days later, she called Penn Systems Group Inc. in Edgmont to have the hard drive replaced. Penn Systems officials told the attorneys that Gardiner's hard drive was one of three they replaced at Constance O'Shea's direction.

Penn Systems received a federal subpoena last month after authorities learned the company had been hired to remove the computer hard drives, according to several sources with knowledge of the investigation.

The board fired Constance O'Shea in May.

Ballard Spahr investigators recommend that Philadelphia Academy's new board work with its new attorneys to seek money and assets that were improperly taken from the school.

This month, the legislature amended Pennsylvania's school code to prohibit charter school administrators from collecting multiple salaries from charter schools and entities that do business with charter schools. Rendell administration officials who pressed for the change in the final hours of budget negotiations said revelations about Gardiner's and O'Shea's salaries had prompted it.

Last month, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted unanimously to give the Philadelphia Academy Charter School a new, five-year operating charter starting Sept. 1, provided the school agrees to meet a list of 20 conditions.