Utah auditor resigns from leading troubled charter school -- after 3 days on the job

Less than one week after being appointed to oversee the closure of a financially troubled charter school and recover hundreds of thousands in misspent funds there, Utah State Auditor John Dougall has resigned from the position.

In a letter dated Monday and sent to the charter, Dougall wrote: “It has been an honor to work with you during the past 3 business days.” He will step down, he noted, now that a new board of directors has been put in place to run the process instead.

That board met Monday — and at the start of the meeting, consisted of only one person, Royce Van Tassell, the executive director of the Utah Association of Public Charter Schools. An item on the agenda was to appoint three new members: Allison Sorenson, Gerry Hassell and Tina Smith, who all have experience managing charters or portfolios.

“And with that, we now have a semblance of a public board. And we can close the school,” Van Tassell said after he picked those individuals and then moved to accept their positions on the board. The new members then unanimously voted to accept Dougall’s resignation letter.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2019/07/22/utah-auditor-resigns/
(Salt Lake Tribune)