The public charter school, resuscitated this fall by a neighboring school, had been run by powerful leaders whose unfortunate legacy was dramatic budget cuts made worse by a lawsuit the school had to settle for $144,000, according to a consultant's report The Salt Lake Tribune obtained through a public records request.

One school director and a board president were granted highly unusual 20-year terms. Another director "who turned out to have substance abuse problems . . . was forced to resign," according to the report. Then there were the "teacher firings and the gossip that followed."

And all this happened in the school's first year.

While some of the players disagree or won't comment on the report's details, the bottom line is that after one year of operation, the Salem school ended up more than 250 students short of enrollment projections and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Lincoln Fillmore, the report's author, recommended in the report that the board of trustees president should step down as well as other appointed members, all of whom helped found the school. They did and the school paid Fillmore $4,000 for his advice.

"Someone made the analogy: When your child is sick sometimes you have to turn it over to the doctor and say, 'OK, I'm going to trust you,' " said Lesa Hazen, the current Liberty board chairwoman.

Mike Brockbank, the school's former board president, had no comment on the report or the school's financial problems.

What happened at Liberty reflects the danger of a parent-run inexperienced board, said Walt Hackford, one of the school's former directors who lost his job in April.

"That's not just their board - it's many of those parent boards run in Utah," he said. "They have carte blanche power. They have absolute autonomy. They are accountable to nobody."

State charter school officials are trying to increase oversight of charter schools.

After a legislative audit found officials had ignored a state board of education rule on accountability for several years, state charter officials have created a new process to ensure schools follow their own agreement with the state. That means the school would not only have to turn in reports and test students - as they have been doing - but also accomplish the goals that gave them reason to exist.

"They have not been held extremely accountable to date," said Marlies Burns, the state charter school office director.

Had the new accountability plan been in place when Liberty Academy was proposed, its application likely would have been under more scrutiny. Details such as the board president's 20-year term may have been questioned more, she said.

It's something of a dilemma for the state. Should the state be stepping on the toes of a school from the first day it opens? Probably not, Burns said.

"But I also don't think they should let [problems] go on and on and on," she said. The Liberty report focuses on the pervasive influence of the board president who created a "dependency" and "overreliance" on a single person. A janitorial contract was awarded to the board president's family member, the report also states. That would be legal under current law but certain disclosures and guidelines must be met.

When asked about power issues at the school, Brockbank said he was "one vote on the board."

But the report details a highly centralized power structure.

"A 'Shadow Board' structure that relies too heavily on the board president, combined with a lack of parental involvement, administrative turnover, and inconsistent adherence to misunderstood policies and procedures have all exacerbated the problems," the report states.

"It is the opinion of Charter Solutions and the Landlord that Liberty Academy's reputation has been damaged to such a point that it will take a generation of students to rebuild," the report states.

Fillmore, the report's author, briefly worked for Excel Education, the company that previously managed the school. He describes his former involvement with Liberty as minimal.

To salvage the school, nearby American Leadership Academy has partnered with Liberty. Its head, Rob Muhlestein, is also Liberty's new managing director and being paid about $75,000.

People's fears that ALA would take over and Liberty would become assimilated have not been realized, said Hazen, the Liberty board chairwoman. The school is maintaining its own identity.

"Personally I think there's enough blame to go around for everybody," said Hazen, starting with the contractors. Because of construction, school didn't start until about the middle of October last year, which led to lower enrollment. Now the school's staff and budget cuts appear to have stabilized the situation.

A dozen teachers were let go earlier this month for budgetary and enrollment reasons following the three who were fired last summer. One of those, Bob St. Jacques, learned he had lost his job on Aug. 31, leaving him only to speculate about what went wrong.

"This particular history teacher is really sad that he's not there to see students grow up that he grew fond of," St. Jacques said.

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* JULIA LYON can be contacted at jlyon@sltrib.com or 801-257-8748.