The audit would be paid for by the school and is not to exceed $25,000, according to a resolution approved by the board at its Sept. 16 meeting. The measure must be approved by the control board before implementation.

Tonya Kinlow, at-large board member who chairs the Subcommittee on Charter Schools, said the money in dispute stems from arrangements for Garvey staff to take a reduction in their pay from a 12-month to a nine-month basis. She said the board received letters and phone calls from former staff members over the summer regarding their pay claims. Kinlow said independent auditors who started to review the school records following its closing cannot figure out how much is owed.

"The auditors said the records they’ve already looked at were not complete," Kinlow said.

Kinlow said when the school was shut down, D.C. Public Schools took some of the records. But the office of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman doesn’t know where they are, Deputy Superintendent Eloise Brooks told the school board. She said staff will look into finding them.

Former Garvey advisory board member Marshall Phillips said teachers were working without a contract and have no legal grounds to claim back pay.

Former Garvey Principal Mary A.T. Agnibo was sentenced to two years of probation and 240 hours of community service for assaulting two D.C. police officers and a Washington Times reporter at the school, which was located at the former Langley Junior High School on T Street NE. Three other school employees also were convicted of related charges for the December 1996 incident. As a result, the elected school board revoked the Garvey school’s charter and fired 13 teachers after deciding the school had violated its charter, which promised exemplary conduct from its faculty.

In other action, the board approved the following:

• A recommendation that upon legal review prior to implementation, D.C. Public Schools will issue student identification numbers with a "charter school identifier code" to students enrolled in public charter schools, at the expense of each charter school.

• Upon a student’s transfer from a charter school to a D.C. Public School or from a D.C. Public School to a charter school, a copy of the student’s record shall be issued immediately and all records transferred appropriately.

• The Rev. Sandra Butler-Truesdale, school board vice president, will represent the board at the 12th annual Technology and Learning Conference in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 29-31.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator