The Vilas School District received about $3.8 million more from the state than it should have last year to educate its public school students, according to a state audit released Thursday.
Most of the surplus was due to an overcount of more than 600 students enrolled in the Hope Co-Op Online Learning Academy for the 2005-06 school year, according to the Colorado Department of Education report.
That year, Vilas, a southeastern Colorado district, received almost $10.86 million from the state to educate 1,872 students. However, an audit found that just 1,240 students – 632 less than funded – were eligible. The district should have gotten about $7.04 million, according to the audit.
About 20 of those students attended one of the district’s other schools, said Vody Herrmann, director of the school-finance unit of the state education department. The remainder were Hope kids.
Heather O’Mara, founder of Hope, which was chartered by Vilas in 2005, said she plans to appeal the audit’s findings. She said she believes the number of kids wrongly counted is probably between 50 and 100.
Hope has 30 days to file an appeal with documentation to prove the students were eligible for state funding.
The state provides education dollars to Colorado’s 178 school districts based on enrollment. A variety of factors determine eligibility. For example, a student must have attended an online school the year prior to enrolling in an online school.
O’Mara said many students got funding, but only for part-time attendance. She said she can show they were eligible for full-time funding. Last year, school districts received $5,689 for each full-time online student.
Joseph Shields, superintendent of the district, could not be reached for comment.
