A forensic investigation of the finances at Epic Charter School found poor budgeting, grossly overestimated enrollment and a lack of oversight from the school’s superintendent and governing board.
The report was presented Monday at a meeting of the Statewide Charter School Board, which ordered the investigation in July. The board authorizes Epic Charter Schools and is tasked with providing oversight under state statute.
Epic enrolled 28,500 students last year, making it the state’s largest online charter school and the third-largest public school system, after Tulsa and Oklahoma City Public Schools.
Last school year, Epic laid off more than 500 employees, many of them teachers, cut programs and took out a line of credit to meet its obligations. The investigation, conducted by Carr, Riggs, & Ingram, found no evidence of misappropriated funds.
Investigators found the school overreliant on flawed enrollment projection tools, which led Epic to hire too many teachers for the 2024-25 school year. The projected 33,000 students fell short, but the school’s staff reached an all-time high of 2,300 employees.
And yet, as the number of employees soared that year, Epic’s budget for instruction, which is mainly teacher salaries, decreased by $2.65 million.
Epic’s superintendent of finance, Jeanise Wynn, maintained control of the budget process, said Ben Kincaid, a certified public accountant and fraud examiner at Carr, Riggs & Ingram. Others rarely questioned her. And she maintained two versions of the budget — one she presented to the public and one kept private, Kincaid said.
Investigators were unable to explain some of Wynn’s predictions, especially her reported $60.4 million carryover from fiscal year 2025. Investigators said the actual amount was $43.7 million, $16.7 million less.
That year, the school was aggressively expanding its physical locations, yet the budget reflected a $3 million decrease in facilities costs compared to the previous year. The school ended the year $5.5 million over budget in that category.
In all of Wynn’s finance department presentations to the board that year, board members asked just six questions. Only two were related to the budget, according to the report.
Wynn resigned in April. Investigators interviewed her and about 20 others for the report.
Former Superintendent Bart Banfield and Carrie Truver, former executive director of finance, either declined or didn’t respond to investigators’ interview requests. Both resigned from Epic last year.
While Epic has begun to address many of the concerns, it needs to improve budget oversight and document budget changes, investigators found. They also said the school should have an internal auditor.
“We are going to make corrective actions,” said Shaun Ross, who was hired as Epic’s superintendent last month. “We will stay above board.”
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
