Teachers and supporters call for change at embattled El Camino charter school

A group of teachers and their supporters have begun calling openly for changes in senior management at El Camino Real Charter High School, which is facing allegations of serious financial wrongdoing — allegations that school leaders have denied.

About 60 teachers and others participated in a Wednesday protest, which took place early in the morning, before staff members signed in for the day at the Woodland Hills campus.

Many drivers, including parents dropping off students, honked their support as they passed. But others ignored the protesters or made critical remarks about the demonstration.

The school community is divided over the best way to handle allegations that senior managers, especially Executive Director David Fehte, mishandled public education dollars.

“A large group of us passionately spoke in defense of keeping our charter by imploring our board of directors to dismiss and terminate ... Dave Fehte and our chief business officer, Marshall Mayotte, for alleged criminal misconduct regarding our school’s finances,” said teacher Carlos Monroy.

“We are sending a message that our voices have been silenced by the inaction of our board and it is jeopardizing our future as an independent charter.”

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Many of the demonstrators called for the immediate release of findings of an internal investigation, which have not been made public.

El Camino officials declined to comment about the protest, but they have insisted that the school has worked diligently and successfully to address shortcomings in its policies and practices.

Alleged problems cited by the Los Angeles Unified School District include possible inappropriate spending, poor accounting and oversight, and violations of public meeting rules. In coverage over the last several months, the Los Angeles Daily News reported on Fehte’s spending for such things as wine, first-class air travel and expensive hotel rooms.

Fehte has denied wrongdoing and said he inadvertently charged about $6,100 in personal expenses on his school credit card. He said he reimbursed the school as soon as these charges were pointed out to him.

Charter schools are independently operated and exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. But the authorizing school district retains an oversight role and can revoke a charter or decline to renew it when there is significant misconduct, mismanagement or poor academic performance.

Last month, the L.A. Board of Education approved a formal “notice of violations,” the first step in a lengthy, multi-step process that could lead to the campus returning to district control.

The school responded to the notice of violations on Sept. 23, submitting a 42-page letter and nearly 400 pages of appendices.

“The charter school strongly believes that it has cured all alleged violations, and also that it has put in place mechanisms to ensure that such items do not happen again,” wrote Janelle A. Ruley, an attorney representing El Camino. “The items identified in the [notice of violations] occurred in the past; the remedies implemented ensure that they will not be repeated.”

The letter also alluded to undisclosed discipline against one or more employees — which, wrote Ruley, could be disclosed confidentially to L.A. Unified.

L.A. Unified is reviewing El Camino’s submission.

El Camino has been considered a generally successful campus before and after 2011, when it converted to charter status under the leadership of Fehte. The school won the national Academic Decathlon in 2014.

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UPDATES:

5:05 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 6 a.m.