Up North Progressive

For-profit charter school Grand Traverse Academy held their school board meeting on November 7, 2014, to discuss among other things the deficit the for-profit now has to deal with thanks to vision therapy optometrist Dr. Steve Ingersoll.

Grand Traverse Academy, the public charter school on Hammond Road, has a deficit of about $365,000, according to its 2014 audit report. This is the first time the school has been in deficit, officials at the Michigan Department of Education said.

School officials will have to submit a two-year deficit elimination plan to the state. School board members are scheduled to discuss the recently-released audit at their meeting Friday.

This deficit is the result of former management company Smart Schools LLC extracting $2.4 million in prepayment for expenses, but never paying back funds the company owes to the school when Steve Ingersoll no longer managed GTA. Where did this money go? You’ll have to stay tuned for the federal fraud trial set to start on December 2. Miss Fortune of course has all the details.

Question to Governor Nerd: If for-profit charter schools run deficits, can they have emergency mangers foisted on them too?