Vivid scenes, key details fill charter report

The walls began closing in on Kevin M. O'Shea in early April when an Inquirer reporter called to ask him about allegations of nepotism, misappropriation of money, and conflicts of interest at the Philadelphia Academy Charter School. His daughter, Tara, took the message.

At a hurriedly convened meeting with Board President Rosemary DiLacqua later that day, DiLacqua recalled, O'Shea appeared "concerned" and "panicky."

At a session with board members the next day, O'Shea, the school's chief executive officer, described the byzantine empire of charter schools and nonprofits created by his boss, Brien N. Gardiner, a former public school principal who founded the Philadelphia Academy Charter. Gardiner and O'Shea were paying themselves and family members hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When the meeting was over, O'Shea walked a board member to the door and remarked, "Dude, I think I'm f-."

Later, after The Inquirer first reported in mid-April that the school district's inspector general was investigating the charter, Megan Simmons, a school administrator, asked O'Shea how he was holding up.

"They won't find anything in my office," he replied, "because I cleaned it out."

Indeed, shortly after the article appeared, Eileen McGrody, an administrative assistant at the school, saw O'Shea emptying files in his office - next to a trash can.

Those frantic scenes are recounted in a remarkable, 62-page report released Thursday by the school's board. The report alleges that Gardiner and O'Shea defrauded the 1,200-student school in Northeast Philadelphia and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal gain.

In the world of dry and technical investigative documents, this one stands out as a detailed and riveting work of nonfiction that includes a sequence of events, biographies of key players, and a litany of questionable expenditures, from $6,072 worth of Flyers tickets to "brazenly false" dinner receipts.

Even with 270 footnotes, the "Report to the Board of Directors of Philadelphia Academy Charter School" reads like a "Lifetime movie script," said Lisa George, one of the parents who first raised the allegations of wrongdoing.

"I think we were a little disgusted, finally seeing everything in one place," acting Board President Joseph Resta, who replaced DiLacqua after she resigned, said Thursday night after the board released the scathing report and adopted its findings.