Students will no longer be attending classes at the American Heritage Academy in Camp Verde, which closed suddenly during spring break.
According to notifications sent to parents, the Camp Verde students will be relocated to American Heritage Academy in Cottonwood at 2030 E. Cherry Street.
Parents were told that students would be provided with transportation to the new schools and placed in grade-appropriate classrooms. Staff at the AHA in Camp Verde will also be laid off.
According to Arizonans for Charter School Accountability, an anti-charter school activist group, the Arizona charter school system has been chronically under-reporting the number of students attending charter schools in Arizona. ACSA researcher Jim Hall found discrepancies in the numbers reported by EdKey Inc., the parent charter school nonprofit of both American Heritage Academy campuses.
In a Jan. 23 securities filing, EdKey reported enrolling 6,042 students across its school system. However, according to the Arizona Department of Education, EdKey reported that it had a total of 5,638 students enrolled, or 404 fewer, during the same time. Hall has filed complaints against EdKey with the Arizona Department of Education and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
State aid is given to schools based on the number of students enrolled, currently at the rate of $8,500 per student.
The allegedly-inflated 404 students would generate an extra $3.4 million in state funds for the school. “This is not the first time EdKey has submitted false enrollment data to bond holders,” Hall alleged in the complaints, adding that EdKey inflated its enrollment numbers by a total of 8,797 students statewide last year.
In Maricopa County, EdKey manages Sequoia Pathway, Sequoia Pathway Secondary and Pathway Academy, which have 687 students. The reduction in enrollment is said to have created a financial crisis at EdKey, as the company had become overextended and unable to keep up with the interest payments on an $8 million bond.
In April 2021, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation into EdKey and its relationship to Prenda, a Mesa-based “microschool” program. Edkey planned on having 8,535 students when it planned its 2023-24 budget and estimated it would collect $57 million in state funding, but only about 5,000 students enrolled, leading to a funding shortfall of about $12 million.
Under the agreement, Prenda and EdKey would split the state funds, then $8,000 per student, and filter students to Prenda’s micro-school curriculum, employing “guides ” instead of certified teachers.
In September 2023, EdKey’s enrollment had dropped by 42% from September 2022 after it lost 3,200 online students who had been enrolled at Prenda. On Aug. 14, 2023, enrollment was 4,057, according to EdKey, but only 1,084 students attended. At the time, the AZCSA alleged that EdKey earned $12 million from the Prenda partnership but allegedly provided no curriculum or instruction to students. In 2022, EdKey built a new school in Buckeye, Sequoia Pathfinder Academy, and bought Caurus Academy in Anthem, which cost EdKey $136 million. EdKey was eventually cleared in the AG’s investigation.
EdKey has 17 schools in Arizona, all but four of which are located in the Phoenix metro area, and reportedly enrolls approximately 3,600 elementary and middle school students and about 1,400 high school students. In Show Low, EdKey also closed George Washington Academy, moving that school’s students across town to Sequoia Village School.
