Board of Trustees Training Amendment Act of 2025, March 26th Hearing, Suzanne Wells

Board of Trustees Training Amendment Act of 2025

March 26th Hearing

Suzanne Wells

Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today’s hearing on the Board of Trustees Training Amendment Act of 2025 introduced by Councilmember Henderson.  This Act requires the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) in coordination with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to offer a school governance mandatory training for members of a Board of Trustees of a public charter school.

  This Act was introduced in response to the abrupt closure of Eagle Academy in August 2024.  I want to be clear that I fully support training for members of a Board of Trustees of a public charter school, but I do not support the Board of Trustees Training Amendment Act of 2025.

  I was disappointed when this Act was introduced that this has been the only response, apart from the hearing held on December 5, 2024, we’ve seen from the Council in the wake of Eagle Academy’s closure.  While training for board members is important, isn’t this something the PCSB should have been doing since the first charter school was approved in DC over 25 years ago?   I assume many individual charter schools already provide training for their board members.  Can't the PCSB make a commitment to learn from the best trainings currently being offered to board members, and develop comprehensive training for board members that can be shared with all charter school operators? Does the PCSB really need legislation for them to do this?

 On a personal note, I am a substitute teacher for DCPS.  I was recently required to complete about five hours of on-line training.  Professional organizations routinely offer training to their employees without having to have legislation requiring them to offer the training.

  I am concerned this legislation gives the appearance of transferring fiduciary responsibilities from the paid CEO, CFO and auditors of a public charter school to non-paid, volunteer board members.  The people who are being paid have a far greater responsibility for the financial health of a charter school than a volunteer board does, in my opinion.  In the case of Eagle Academy, it also isn’t clear how board members would have been able to exercise their fiduciary responsibilities when the CEO/CFO and auditing firm hid important fiscal matters from the board.  No amount of training is going to help when a board isn't fully informed.

 It seems there is much more urgent business the Council should be paying attention to surrounding the Eagle Academy closing.  Shouldn't there be more public information about the finances of Eagle Academy, e.g., what is still owed to creditors, details on the $4 million UPSFF funding the school received in July 2024 and whether any of this funding will be returned to the City, and a thorough investigation into the CEO/CFO’s and the auditing firm's financial management of the school? 

 I urge the Council to investigate what appear to be the serious issues of financial mismanagement at Eagle Academy.  I urge the PCSB to fulfill its responsibilities to monitor the finances of the public charter schools, and ensure public charter school employees and board members have appropriate training to successfully manage a school’s finances.