Clip

Jul 2020 Page resized

16 0009 72%

The Oklahoma Eagle

Amid Enrollment Spike, EPIC Announces It

Is Resuming Hiring For 2020-21
By Eagle Newswire lies anxious about the pan- program to apply for the Zoom, FaceTime, Google
demic and traditional class- 2020-21 school year. EPIC's Chat, Skype and the like.
Oklahoma City, Okla. - rooms this fall," said EPIC average teacher salary is the "We anticipate many of
Amid a marked enrollment Superintendent Bart Ban- highest in Oklahoma and the our families are not going to
spike during the pandemic, field. "We have technology school also pays full health elect to meet in person,"
EPIC Charter Schools an- and connectivity to offer and Teacher Retirement Banfield said. "So teachers
nounced today it is again families for free and we System of Oklahoma bene- we hire for this coming
hiring faculty for the 2020- limit our student-to-teacher fits. EPIC teachers are em- school year who may not be
21 school year. As the ratios to an average of 28:1. ployed across the state of comfortable being in a class-
school year draws nearer This provides a high level of Oklahoma, office from their room this school year could
and Oklahoma parents are daily attention and support homes and are assigned a find a good professional fit
deciding what is in the best that our experience in oper- roster of students who live in for themselves this year with
interest of their children for ating for 10 years tells us close proximity to them- EPIC."
this school year, EPIC's en- students need for a high- selves. To apply to EPIC, visit
rollment for 2020-21 is pro- quality, distance learning EPIC families will be https://epiccharterschools.or
jected to grow by 40%. Prior model." given the option in 2020-21 g/employment. For more in-
to the pandemic, the school EPIC is encouraging both to meet with their teachers formation about applying
was the state's third largest certified teachers and pro- in person (as was the prac- for EPIC's free UTeach pro-
public school system. fessionals who have college tice pre-COVID) or have gram to gain alternative cer-
"Our learning model is degrees and aim to become daily interaction with their tification, visit
uniquely positioned to be a alternatively certified teachers with such common https://epiccharterschools.or
meaningful option for fami- through EPIC's free UTeach video conferencing tools as g/uteach.html.

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Clip
Jul 2020 Page resized
29 A001 59%

Midwest City Beacon

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Clip
Jul 2020 Page resized From
29 A012 92% A001

Midwest City Beacon

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise

EDUCATION

Epic Charter School budgets

Jul
30

2020
$270 million in revenue
Page By Nuria Martinez-Keel the 2020-21 school year. The first day
A001 The Oklahoman of school is Sept. 8.
Clip Epic is a free public virtual charter
resized
72% Epic Charter Schools projects nearly school that receives state funds for
$270 million in revenue this fiscal every student enrolled and a smaller
year as its enrollment skyrockets into portion of federal support. It does not
the largest public school system in receive any local tax revenue.
Oklahoma. Initial state funding for Epic, which
The board for Community Strategies, is distributed in August, will be based
the nonprofit in charge of Epic, voted on its student count at the end of the
unanimously Tuesday night by tele- previous school year, when the virtual
conference in favor of Fiscal Year 2021 system had about 32,000 students.
budgets for Epic One-on-One and Epic State funding is adjusted mid-year
Blended Learning Centers. to account for enrollment changes
The board approved a $173,453,428 between the end of the previous
budget for Epic One-on-One, a state- school year and Oct. 1. Epic could see
wide online learning platform. Epic a large hike in funding in its mid-year
Blended Learning Centers, located in adjustment on account of its massive
Tulsa and Oklahoma County, will oper- enrollment growth over the summer.
ate with a budget of $95,968,952. In less than a month, Epic has added
Epic One-on-One budgeted for thousands of new families, 60% of
$170.8 million in expenditures, and Epic whom said they are seeking virtual
Blended estimated nearly $91.4 million schooling because of COVID-19,
in spending. according to a survey Epic conducted
These budgets are based on an of 2,300 newly enrolled parents. Nearly
enrollment of 40,000 total students, 50% said they did not intend to return
a benchmark Epic achieved this week. to their previous school once the pan-
The virtual charter school system demic ends.
reached 40,631 students on Tuesday, The board also heard results from an
riding a wave of enrollment that began internal audit of Epic’s Learning Fund,
after the July 4 holiday. a bank account that has drawn the
The recent spike, propelled in part attention of law enforcement and Okla-
by the coronavirus pandemic, pushed homa’s state auditor and inspector.
Epic past Tulsa Public Schools and Epic’s Internal Auditor Linda Ladd
Oklahoma City Public Schools for the presented a clean report to the board.
highest enrollment in the state. Ladd said her audit had no material
Superintendent Bart Banfield said the findings and all expenses were “appro-
virtual charter school system projects a priate and for the purpose of educating
total enrollment of 55,400 by the end of SEE EPIC, A3

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Clip
Jul 2020 Page resized From
30 A003 74% A001

Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise

EPIC
From Page A1
illegally inflate its enroll-
ment counts, according
subject to a public audit.
In March, Epic’s school
to court documents filed board requested Ladd,
last year. who works for Epic, per-
Epic has denied any form an internal audit of
children.” wrongdoing. The OSBI the Learning Fund. She
Epic directs some of investigation is still reviewed transactions
its annual funding to an ongoing. between July 1, 2017,
account called the Learn- State Auditor and through June 30, 2019,
ing Fund, and its private Inspector Cindy Byrd said involving about 2,700
management company, she has requested Learn- students. The audit
Epic Youth Services, doles ing Fund records from report did not specify the
out the money. Each stu- Epic Youth Services, but total amount spent on the
dent is allocated $1,000 to
the company refused to Learning Fund over that
put toward extracurricular
divulge any documents. time.
activities, a supplemental
curriculum or educational Byrd is conducting an Ladd said any dis-
technology. investigative audit of crepancies she found
The Oklahoma State Epic at the request of Gov. were minor and were
Bureau of Investigation Kevin Stitt. not recurring issues.
alleged Epic used the The dispute over finan- Her audit found nine
Learning Fund to entice cial records is now in instances, amount-
homeschoolers and pri- Oklahoma County Dis- ing to $42, in which a
vate school students to trict Court. Attorneys Learning Fund payment
dual-enroll in the virtual representing Epic Youth differed from third-party
charter school as a way to Services said a private documentation.
business should not be

SCHOOLS are set to begin Aug. 12.

Area districts are relying
to send their children into
the school environment at
From Page A1 on guidelines set by state all this year.
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Clip
Jul 2020 Page resized
30 0006 86%

The Konawa Leader

y p y

Epic Releases Their County

Enrollment Numbers
Epic Public Charter Schools our parents a lot of choices and uncertainty of the times, and we
released county-by-county supporting our faculty through hope to be a bridge for the fam-
enrollment data today on the competitive compensation and ilies who have chosen to start
heels of last week’s announce- low class sizes. We’re ready the school year with us.”  
ment that the virtual charter to meet the challenges of the EPIC begins its school year,
school is now the largest public upcoming school year and do as it does every year, the day
school district in the state. our part to help our state.” after Labor Day, September 8. 
The virtual public charter Hickman said the school’s   A county-by-county break-
school has students in all 77 internal data shows about 60 down of EPIC students can
counties in Oklahoma.  Current percent of new enrollments are be found here: https://drive.
total enrollment for the upcom- due to the pandemic, while 40 google.com/drive/folders/1VW-
ing school year is 40,631 stu- percent of new enrollees have JZNaZwq9xzgxgJgP8E7I_
dents, and hundreds more are indicated their enrollment is lbAUNN-u4?usp=sharing.  
enrolling each day.  unrelated to COVID-19. EPIC’s school model pro-
“The shift to distance learn- “Whatever their reasons for vides free choice of online cur-
ing happened slowly and then coming to us are, we’re ready,” riculum, technology (laptops,
all at once,” EPIC Assistant Hickman said. “We serve kids tablets, etc.) and wi-fi service for
Superintendent Shelly Hickman and families in Oklahoma City students who need it, easing the
said. “EPIC has had 10 years to and Tulsa, but we also serve technology burden for families
sharpen best practices for virtual kids from places like Guymon that opt for distance, blended
learning, which include giving and Atoka. We understand the learning.

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
 Tahlequah Press

Epic releases enrollment

figures, county by county
Epic Public Charter be found at drive.
Jul Schools released county- google.com/drive.
30 by-county enrollment
data Tuesday on the heels
of last week’s announce-
2020

Page
ment that the virtual char-
ter school is now the larg-
est public school district
The B
B06
Clip
resized
in Oklahoma.
The virtual public char-
ter school has students 2n
2
55% in all 77 counties in Okla-
homa. Current total en-
rollment for the upcom-
ing school year is 40,631
students, and hundreds
more are enrolling each
$
day. Area county numbers
include: Cherokee, 303;
Adair, 64; Sequoyah, 452;
Wagoner, 789.
“The shift to distance
learning happened slowly
and then all at once,” said
EPIC Assistant Superin-
tendent Shelly Hickman.
“EPIC has had 10 years to
sharpen best practices for
virtual learning, which in-
clude giving our parents a
lot of choices and support-
ing our faculty through
competitive compensa-
tion and low class sizes.
We’re ready to meet the
challenges of the upcom-
ing school year and do our
part to help our state.”
Hickman said the
school’s internal data
shows about 60 percent of
new enrollments are due
to the pandemic, while 40
percent of new enrollees
have indicated their en-
rollment is unrelated to
COVID-19.
“Whatever their rea-
sons for coming to us,
we’re ready,” Hickman
said. “We understand un-
certainty of the times, and
we hope to be a bridge
for the families who have
chosen to start the school
year with us.”
EPIC begins its school
year, as it does every year,
the day after Labor Day,
which is Sept. 8.
A county-by-coun-
ty breakdown can

Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.