Utah's Beehive Science & Technology charter school shut down because of financial problems; appeal is planned

For the first time since the charter school movement began, the Utah State Charter School Board moved Thursday to shut down an operational school.

The vote to revoke the Beehive Science & Technology charter, a state contract that grants the independently run school public education dollars, was unanimous. Barring a successful appeal, the Salt Lake City school at 1011 Murray Holladay Road will close its doors at the end of this school year.

"This is not something I wanted to do," said Brian Allen, chairman of the State Charter School Board, after the meeting Thursday. "This is an academically strong school, and I really wanted things to work out, but at the end of the day, it's our public duty as a board to hold charter schools accountable to the taxpayers."

Allen said the board couldn't foresee a viable future for Beehive, which started the school year $33,000 in the red. The 5-year-old-school has continuously failed to meet "accepted standards of fiscal management," he said.

Beehive's troubles came to the board's attention in July 2009, when a former board member accused the school of having clandestine ties to a controversial Turkish Muslim preacher. Fethullah Gülen, who doesn't recognize al-Qaida as a terrorist organization, was exiled from Turkey in 1998 for reportedly working to overthrow the secular government. His international network of schools, universities and businesses — known as the Gülen Movement — has been accused of promoting the preacher's agenda. While the State Charter School Board concluded Beehive was innocent of preaching Turkish nationalism, their investigation revealed a tangled web of troubling business practices.

The charter school was relying on high-interest personal loans to pay day-to-day expenses, said Cory Kanth, financial analyst for the State Charter School Board. Beehive overestimated enrollment by 87 percent when making budget decisions and failed to make adjustments when fewer than expected children signed up to take classes. Board members borrowed more than $160,000 from various sources, including employees.

Beehive underestimated the number of students it could fit into its facility before signing an expensive lease. Budget-wise, Beehive needed 300 students to stay afloat. Seismically, however, its building was only deemed safe to house 224. After a news story accusing the school of having ties to Islam broke, many parents took their children elsewhere, furthering Beehive's enrollment problems.

"In the charter school world, if you can't attract enough students to finance your program, your operation is going to fail," Allen said. "It could happen to anyone."