Questions for APA

What qualified Carolyn Sharette to work in education management prior to 2001?

Carolyn did not work in education management prior to 2001.

What is her annual compensation from Utah taxpayers to oversee charter school
management?

Ms. Sharette does not receive compensation from Utah taxpayers. The State of Utah funds the
American Preparatory Academies via Utah Charter Academies (UCA) based on their number of
enrolled students, as they do 140 other charter schools throughout Utah. Charter schools are
public schools, owned by taxpayers, operated under specific charters.

Because of its tremendous success, the UCA non-profit educational organization has expanded
significantly over the years. To manage that growth and to consolidate and streamline "back
office" operations such as HR, accounting and purchasing for the individual schools, UCA
contracts with a management company. Many charter schools do the same, especially those with
multiple campuses. The management contracts are awarded through an open competitive bid
process.

Education Consultants of Utah (ECU) was formed as a private management company, and also
provides services and consulting for schools outside Utah both in the APA family and otherwise.
ECU was awarded its management contract with UCA by a competitive bid process. Ms.
Sharette is employed by this private company.

To restate simply, the State of Utah provides funding for the education of charter school students
to UCA, as it does with all charter schools. This is also known as a "Public/private Partnership."
UCA – again like hundreds of other charter organizations in Utah and throughout the country –
hires a management company to deal with operations. The management company in this case,
ECU, retains Ms. Sharette's services as an executive for its Utah operations as well as in other
states.

UCA is in full compliance with all public disclosure laws.

We are not aware of any circumstance in which a private vendor contracted to provide goods or
services to a particular department or division of the State of Utah is required to provide
executive salary information under public disclosure laws. Furthermore, ECU is contracted to
provide services in a manner and at a rate consistent with hundreds of similarly situated charter
school management companies in Utah and nationwide. There is nothing unique or unusual
about ECU and its contractual relationship with UCA. What is remarkable about both is their
success.

If KUTV wishes to request additional information beyond what is required by law, it may wish
to contact the Utah State Office of Education and/or the State Charter School Board. Royce Van
Tassell at the Charter School Association is also available to provide industry information.
Is the (approx.) $4.6 paid to American Preparatory Schools Inc. for specific services like HR
and accounting, or is it more like an annual fee? How is that figure calculated from year to
year?

Please see above.

How many people are employed by American Preparatory Schools Inc.?

About 60.

Did Howard Headlee participate in crafting or adopting the legislation that exempted charter
schools in Utah from nepotism laws?

No.

What did APA pay a company named Forest Corp. $12,000 to do in 2016-17?

It is the lease for the section of land used for ingress/egress to the school property because of
inaccessibility from the public road that runs south of the property, which is subject to ongoing
litigation.

APA used taxpayer funds totaling $56,106 in 2017 on legal fees in an as-yet unsuccessful
attempt to acquire a strip of land in dispute near APA’s Draper campus. Yet in financial
reports and state-mandated audits, the schools claim not to have any pending or potential
legal liability. How can that be?

A liability would imply some action or judgment pending against the school. In fact, UCA is the
plaintiff in an action against the party claiming ownership of the disputed southern access.

There are three additional points we believe are salient and we hope you will include in your
story:

1. UCA is the largest and most successful charter school organization in the state.
2. Every student that attends an American Preparatory Academy does so by choice; for many
families it is a sacrifice. But of all the conventional public, private and/or charter schools
available to these students and their families, they voluntarily choose to attend APA.
3. With its clear record of success and a waiting list averaging over 12,000 would-be students, it
might be worthwhile to focus more on what UCA is doing right rather than what a few critics
insist it is doing wrong.

The following statement may be attributed to Mr. Clay Hatch, Board Chair for Utah Charter
Academies:

“The Utah Charter Academies board of directors complies fully with all applicable disclosure
laws and operates with full transparency under those laws. We are very satisfied with the
services performed for our organization by Education Consultants of Utah (ECU). ECU was
awarded its contract through an open competitive bid process, the details of which are publicly
available.

“We think the growth and success of our schools and students speak for themselves, as does the
satisfaction level of their parents with their APA educational experience (98% - see attached).
Our only regret is the thousands of hopeful students who remain on long waiting lists because we
cannot accommodate them all.”