Epic Charter Schools

Epic Charter Schools board members approved a revised and reduced FY 22 budget for Epic One-on-One at their meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. (Screenshot) Deputy Superintendent of Finance Janice Wynn presented a revised FY22 budget for Epic One-on-One that accounts for the revenue decrease. The revision was approved by board members. "All of our funding is tied to our student count," Wynn said. "As of today, where we stand, I'm asking for your approval to decrease our budget from $209,712,090 to $165,316,446." Board members also approved a revised budget for Epic Blended, which will see an increase of $14,380,355 despite falling enrollment, owing mostly to an approximate $12.2 million increase in federal funds. During the meeting, board member Kathrine Steno said she was "concerned" about how the "reduction in force" began, including that she felt it happened suddenly. "As a board member, I had no idea that we were doing it at all and so suddenly," Steno said. "I was very concerned about how this happened." Banfield told Steno that when Epic entered the fiscal year starting July 1, he was unsure of what enrollment would look like and that he made the decision in order to be proactive. Still, he called the process "painful." Board Chairman Paul Campbell said he was surprised by the fact that Steno was surprised by the cuts. "I feel very confident that this has been well thought through, and I'm surprised you're surprised, to be honest with you, because [Banfield] has talked about this at board meetings," Campbell said. "This isn't a surprise by any stretch of the imagination to this board." Steno said she thought communication about the issue could have been better and that she would have liked to be in the loop before reading about the plan in news reports. Despite calming instrumental versions of Take on Me and Let's Hear it For the Boy played in the room prior to the start of Wednesday's board meeting, Campbell expressed some frustration over the press release about the staff reduction that was sent out Tuesday afternoon. "I don't think the press release was needed," Campbell said during the meeting. "Our communications team (and) our communications strategy is centered around what's in the best interest of students. I don't care what the Tulsa World or The Oklahoman think, no offense to them. We're here to run a school. If you want to do a press release on the fact that (when) our graduation rates are finally at 80 percent - OK, maybe. But the inner workings of the school and the stuff we've got going on, those days are over. This media game that we played in the past to gaslight everyone is over."