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Administrators from Vineyard's Franklin Discovery Academy defended themselves Friday against allegations of running an unsecured, disorganized campus where a former employee was inappropriate with a student.
At a hearing of the Utah Charter School Board, staff members of the board who visited the campus this week reported witnessing a lack of adult supervision, safety hazards and a largely disorganized class schedule with little instructional learning.
"Children are coming and going all the time and are not being tracked," said Leah Voorhies, a special education coordinator. "The adults do not know where the children are going."
Holly Todd, a Board of Education employee, said she was approached by a student during her visit who asked what he was supposed to be doing. And another student described spending about 90 minutes of the school day working with a teacher, with the rest of her time spent drawing.
And Lillian Tsosie-Jensen, an educational coordinator, said she witnessed physical dangers like combustible materials and electrical cords splayed out in the open. But she was most concerned, she said, about what she perceived to be a student sobbing in a locked room.
"It was behind a locked door that I could not access," she said. "I never got an answer to that."
Members of the Charter School Board called for a review of the school's operations Thursday after learning of allegations that an employee had been grooming an elementary-age student for an inappropriate relationship and that another student had been cornered and groped by her classmates.
Jen Price, chairwoman of Franklin Discovery's governing board, said two employees had been fired last week due to an incident of "grooming." The first employee had been grooming a student and was fired by the director, Price said, and the director was subsequently fired after the governing board learned that the director had known about the allegations for nine days before taking action against the perpetrating employee.
"That's when we decided that we couldn't allow that to ever happen again," Price said.
Price also acknowledged the groping incident, but she said it had been misreported. A third-grade girl waiting to be picked up in November had been chased by two classmates, Price said, who grabbed at the girl's shirt and prevented her from entering the school.
The chairwoman said the school had contacted the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, and that she was told the incident did not warrant investigation.
"It was not sexual assault," Price said.
Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said the county is aware that the Charter School Board is investigating allegations of misconduct, but that the allegations don't appear to be criminal.
"If, during the course of their investigation, [members of the board] find something that is criminal or goes beyond what they would normally investigate," law enforcement would step in, Cannon said.
Price said that, out of context, the reports from the school board staff would make it appear that Franklin Discovery Academy is the worst school on the planet.
But she added that it is common at any school for students to not always go where they're supposed to go, and she emphasized that no locked room at the school was being used as a solitary confinement or timeout space.
"That room is locked," she said. "It has a lock on the door, and no children are intended to be in that room."
Franklin Discovery Academy launched last fall and uses an individualized model that intends children to direct themselves toward various educational activities throughout the day.
School Director Kris Hatch, who replaced the previous director last week, said the innovative model has presented growing pains as children learn how to transition between instructional periods.
"We're trying to do things that have never been done," he said.
The school, he said, has a more structured schedule it could use, one in which teachers or an adult supervisor would guide students to activities. And the school would be willing to use that model, he said, if it mitigates the concerns of the Charter School Board.
"It doesn't allow us to do what our model intends and envisions," he said. "For the circumstances, we can start there and we can account for every single student."
After the charter board's closed-door session, board members voted to adjourn without taking action regarding Franklin Discovery Academy. But a meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Saturday night, and board staff suggested other meetings could be scheduled to consider a warning, probationary status or potential revocation of the school's charter.
James Thompson, a parent of students at the school, said he hopes the school can continue to operate.
"I fully support the administration," he said. "I'd like to see it continue for years to come."
Twitter: @bjaminwood
—Reporter Mariah Noble contributed to this story.