An Indiana Creek online school will close this summer after the head of the school was implicated in enrollment fraud at two other virtual schools, which are now closed.
The contract between Indian Creek Schools and Indian Creek Online Academy, which doubled in size this year to 120 students, was originally supposed to run through the end of the 2021-22 school year, but both the head of the academy, Gar Hoover, and district officials mutually agreed to cut ties due to the allegations, a decision the school board finalized last week.
Chalkbeat reported that Hoover previously served as the chief operating officer of AlphaCom, which was accused of $86 million in enrollment fraud for inflating student numbers at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy, both of which closed last year. Indiana state auditors accused Hoover of signing off on a request for more than $96,000 in state funds based on those inflated numbers.
Hoover told Chalkbeat in an interview that he was not involved in the virtual schools’ enrollment or finances and has never been the COO. He told the publication he eventually left AlphaCom because he disagreed with the way the schools were being managed.
Indian Creek Online Academy added about 60 students in September. The school was geared toward students who struggle in traditional classroom settings.
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Hoover contacted Indian Creek administrators seeking a partnership for an online academy, and the school saw the offer as an advantage, with a breadth of course offerings not available through the Educational Service Center, which also has some online coursework and credit recovery options for students, Superintendent Tim Edsell said.
Indian Creek schools was not aware of any connection between Hoover, president of American Online Educational Services, and the fraud that allegedly only occurred in the two now-defunct virtual schools, he said.
“When I had conversations back in July and August with the company and (Hoover), I asked if there was any connection to Indiana Virtual School. He said they were contracted in services, but I didn’t have any evidence of impropriety,” Edsell said last week.
“What concerned me was the individual who owned American Online Educational Services, his name was associated with the dollar amount (for fraud allegations). That’s the first time I had evidence of any linkage to that individual and services in education.”
Hoover did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Indian Creek schools does not plan to open a new virtual school anytime soon, but hopes students will have their needs met with an expansion of offerings through the Educational Service Center, Edsell said.
“They can stay fully enrolled with us,” Edsell said. “In this transition plan, if a student wants to stay with us (they can). We’ll work with the Educational Service Center for more online courses.”
Editor’s note: An update was made to this story on July 11, 2022 noting that Hoover says that he was never the COO of AlphaCom.
