Board of Education revokes charter of Little Rock school

The state Board of Education revoked the charter of Covenant Keepers, a charter school in southwest Little Rock, on Friday morning.

The board then voted to accept the state Charter Authorizing Panel's approval of Friendship Aspire to expand grades served and student enrollment cap for its 25th Street campus in Little Rock. The move will enable Friendship Aspire to accommodate Covenant Keepers' staff and students starting Feb. 25.

The move to revoke comes in the aftermath of a complaint made to Little Rock Police against Covenant Keepers' founder and former superintendent, Valerie Tatum. Friendship Education Foundation leaders have accused Tatum, who resigned from the school last fall, of withdrawing more than $188,000 from the school's bank account, putting the school in peril of not being able to complete this year and forcing students to find new schools in the middle of the year.

Friendship Education Foundation, which has a charter school in Pine Bluff, has been managing Covenant Keepers this school year as part of a memorandum of understanding with the City of Fire Community Development Inc. City of Fire is the nonprofit sponsoring organization for Covenant Keepers and the holder of the state charter for the school.

Joe Harris, Friendship Education Foundation's chief operating officer, said the withdrawals by Tatum were discovered by his staff earlier this month as part of the reconciliation of financial transactions for the school.

Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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