Epic Charter School superintendent resigns after major cuts to staff, facilities
Epic Charter School Superintendent Bart Banfield speaks at a meeting of the school's governing board on Nov. 14 at the 50 Penn Place complex in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — Amid mass layoffs of educators, the superintendent of Epic Charter School has resigned.
The virtual charter school announced Monday that Bart Banfield has stepped down after six years in charge. Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Justin Hunt will lead the school in the interim while Epic's governing board searches for a permanent hire.
Banfield led Epic during multiple turbulent periods while the school weathered criminal investigations, a forensic audit, a threat of closure and up-and-down enrollment.
'Bart Banfield's leadership has helped shape our school and strengthen its mission to provide an exceptional, personalized education for students across Oklahoma,' Ginger Casper, president of Epic's school board, said. 'We are grateful for his contributions and wish him continued success in his future endeavors.'
During Banfield's tenure, Epic rapidly grew into the largest school district in Oklahoma in 2020 as families sought online schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Epic, now the state's third-largest district, has experienced declining enrollment ever since, which contributed to pay cuts and layoffs in October. District officials at the time said they overestimated their yearly enrollment by 4,000 students.
This month, the school eliminated 357 teaching and administrative jobs in the latest round of staff cuts. It will close its in-person learning centers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, as well.
Epic's finances have been under the microscope for several years. The school's co-founders, Ben Harris and David Chaney, were charged in 2022 with embezzlement, racketeering and a litany of other financial crimes stemming from their leadership of Epic.
Harris and Chaney deny allegations that they wrongfully pocketed millions of taxpayer dollars intended for Epic students. Former Epic CFO Josh Brock also was charged in the case and has agreed to testify against the co-founders in exchange for no prison time.
Banfield succeeded Chaney as Epic's superintendent in 2019. He first joined Epic in 2014 as assistant superintendent of instruction.
Harris and Chaney, whose company was paid to manage the school, remained intricately linked with Epic until 2021, when the school's governing board cut ties with them and their business.
While facing threats of closure from the state, Epic's governing board and Banfield's administration implemented financial, organizational and transparency reforms that converted the school into a self-run entity without an outside company involved in its management. Until 2021, Harris and Chaney's company had run and profited from Epic since they founded the school in 2011.
Hunt, who is now interim superintendent, experienced the transition along with Banfield. He was hired in 2017 as managing director of instruction and became deputy superintendent of instruction in 2021.
'Mr. Hunt brings with him a strong commitment to Epic's mission and a deep understanding of our community's needs,' Casper said. 'We are confident that his leadership will ensure continuity and stability as we move forward.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
India's Power Pivot as Coal Cracks and Renewables Surge
Despite the lowest coal prices in Asia in four years, India's coal power generation dipped in May to the lowest since the Covid lockdowns of 2020, as a lack of heatwaves and soaring renewable energy installations and generation pushed down coal demand in the electricity sector. To be sure, the share of coal in India's power output remains above 70%, but at 70.7% in May, it was the lowest in three years, according to data from federal power grid regulator Grid India reviewed by Reuters. Natural gas-fired generation and its share in the power mix also slumped in May, contributing to the lower fossil fuel powered electricity in the world's second-biggest coal importer and fourth-largest LNG importer. At the same time, power generation from renewable energy sources soared to a record high, as did the share of clean energy in the electricity mix. India's lower coal power generation in May was attributed to weaker demand growth due to a lack of heatwaves compared to May last year and economic headwinds. While coal faltered, renewables picked up the slack as installations soar to records. Coal-fired power generation slumped by 9.5% in May from a year earlier—the steepest fall since the Covid lockdowns of June 2020, per Grid India's data compiled by Reuters. Natural gas saw an even more dramatic plunge of 46.5% last month—marking the worst drop since October 2022, when natural gas prices hit record highs in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But renewable energy generation jumped by 17.2% to the highest level ever in May 2025, allowing renewables to grab 15.4% of total power output—the largest share on for its part, saw its share down to 70.7% in May, compared to 74% for the same month last year. Milder weather with no extreme temperatures surely helped India's greener power generation last month. But surging renewable capacity installations suggest that the country is getting increasingly serious about boosting significantly its clean energy to reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports. Still, India isn't giving up on coal. Annual installations of new coal-fired power capacity hit 4 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, flat on the five-year high of 2023 and the highest level since 2019, according to official government figures. India plans to add as much as 90 GW of coal capacity by 2032 as it looks to meet its surging power demand with reliable baseload electricity. However, the country is also accelerating renewable energy installations. In the 2024/2025 financial year ended March 31, 2025, India installed a record high 29.52 GW of renewables capacity, hitting 220.10 GW in total, amid booming solar energy installations. Solar additions jumped to 23.83 GW in FY 2024–25, up from 15.03 GW added in the previous year, government data showed. India also has 169.40 GW of renewable energy projects under construction and 65.06 GW already tendered. The country targets to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power capacity by 2030. Going forward, India is set to see a surge in power demand and renewable energy build-out in the coming years and decades and could assert itself as a clean energy powerhouse if it boosts investments, U.S.-based clean energy think tank Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) said in a report last month. 'If the finance catches up, India's transition could save more emissions by midcentury than Europe and North America combined — while charting the way for emerging economies around the world,' the research noted. Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) also noted in a May report India's enormous potential to chart a path beyond coal with record renewable energy installations. 'India currently has 234 GW of renewable energy capacity in the pipeline, which will further reduce pressure on thermal resources as solar continues to dominate during peak hours,' CREA analysts said. 'India's power sector stands at a critical juncture, marked by record-high installed capacity and a rapidly evolving energy mix.' By Tsvetana Paraskova for More Top Reads From this article on
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Man pleads guilty to using arrow key and stealing mail in New York, feds say
A 25-year-old pleaded guilty to using a postal service key to steal mail out of a receptacle in New York, federal prosecutors said. Antonio Jones, Jr., of Buffalo, now faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit mail theft and possession of an arrow key, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York said in a June 6 news release. McClatchy News reached out to Jones' attorney June 9 but did not receive an immediate response. According to a complaint filed in October, law enforcement officials found a 'substantial amount' of sealed and opened mail in a car Jones was riding in with two others during an Oct. 2 traffic stop in Cheektowaga. Officials also found an arrow key on Jones during the stop, prosecutors said. Before the traffic stop, the United States Postal Investigation Service along with financial institutions and local law enforcement in the Buffalo area had gotten multiple complaints about stolen and opened mail, leading officials to identify specific collection boxes as regular targets of mail theft, according to the complaint. One of the locations identified was the Cayuga Post Office, and as investigators were conducting surveillance on it, they saw the car with Jones and two others drive up to the back of some mailboxes at the location, according to the complaint. Then, investigators saw two of the men get out of the vehicle, and one of them open the mailboxes and take mail out while the other 'appeared to act as a sort of 'lookout,'' prosecutors said. The men were stopped right after, prosecutors said. The two others Jones was with were convicted earlier and await sentencing, prosecutors said. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 24, prosecutors said. Cheektowaga is about a 25-mile drive southeast from Niagara Falls. Mail theft During the early COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp increase in mail theft complaints, according to a September 2023 report issued by the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General. From March 2020 through February 2021, there were 299,020 mail theft complaints – a 161% increase 'compared to the same period in the previous year,' the report said. Suspected mail theft can be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online or by calling 1-877-876-2455.
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
New polls show a Cuomo-Mamdani face off in a tightening New York mayoral race
NEW YORK — The Democratic primary for New York City mayor is effectively a two-person race between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, two new internal polls show. A survey conducted by Data for Progress on behalf of a super PAC for Mamdani found Cuomo up by just two points, while a poll from the ex-governor's camp showed Cuomo with a 12-point lead. Data for Progress, which conducted its text and web poll of 819 likely Democratic voters between May 30 and June 4, found Cuomo starts the ranked-choice race with a seven-point edge. He wins it in the eighth round by a 51-49 split — within the three-point margin of error. It was conducted on behalf of the super PAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs, as well as the national PAC for the Working Families Party — whose local arm is backing the democratic socialist state lawmaker. The findings indicate Mamdani's message of combating income inequality is resonating with voters who routinely rank housing and inflation as leading concerns, despite his rivals' hits on the 33-year-old lawmaker's inexperience. Cuomo's more recent poll of 600 likely Democratic primary voters, conducted between June 3 and 7 by Expedition Strategies, shows him beating Mamdani by 12 points — 56 to 44 — in the eighth round of voting. While it was being conducted, the candidates faced off in their first televised debate on June 4 and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez selected Mamdani as her top choice the following day. During the same period, pro-Cuomo super PAC Fix the City also started blanketing the airwaves and hitting mailboxes with ads saying Mamdani wanted to raise taxes and defund the police. Both surveys show every other candidate in single digits. 'This poll makes clear that New Yorkers increasingly want a mayor who is focused on affordability, like Zohran Mamdani, and not a scandal-ridden politician like Andrew Cuomo,' New Yorkers for Lower Costs spokesperson Bill Neidhardt said in a statement. Cuomo resigned from office in 2021, following reports from the state attorney general that he sexually harassed female staffers and under counted nursing home deaths during Covid — all of which he denies. His pollster offered a different take on the findings. 'With five days to go until early voting begins in New York City, our latest poll shows Governor Cuomo with a durable lead and significant advantages over the rest of the field when it comes to critical qualities such as the ability to solve the city's problems,' Pete Brodnitz, founder and president of Expedition Strategies, wrote in a poll memo. His team reached likely voters by phone, including landlines, and text-to-web interviews. It has a 3.9 percent margin of error. The polls are solidifying the shape of the race as it enters its final weeks: Early voting begins Saturday, and the primary is June 24. Most voters' minds are made up by now, but the surveys each found some room for movement, with 8 percent of likely voters in Data for Progress' poll claiming to be undecided about the candidates, compared to 9 percent in the Expedition poll. More than one-quarter of likely voters, 28 percent, told Data for Progress they hadn't heard enough about Mamdani to form an opinion. Those who know him like him, giving him a 58-15 percent favorability rating. Cuomo's was even at 48-49, and just 3 percent of voters didn't know enough about the three-term New York governor to form an opinion. These polls reflect the continued trend in this race to replace Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent following the fallout from his federal indictment: Cuomo is leading, Mamdani is gaining and no one else has found a foothold to climb. 'We're confident in our methodology and these results — we have a strong track record here, and believe this snapshot reflects the state of the race as it stood in early June,' said Ryan O'Donnell, deputy executive director of Data for Progress. The firm was accurate in its 2021 mayoral poll just before primary day. The Cuomo campaign survey reached voters through phone calls, including landlines, while the Mamdani poll was on the web only. The samples — the pollsters' expectation of the demographics of voters who will show up to vote — varied only slightly. The Cuomo poll's respondents were 41 percent white, and 30 percent under the age 45, for example, while the Mamdani poll's sample was 42 percent white and 33 percent under 45. Cuomo polls best with Black voters and older voters, while Mamdani leads the field with white voters and younger voters. The most notable difference was how much support each of the leading two candidates picked up when ranked-choice votes were distributed. In Cuomo's poll, the ex-governor maintains his 12-point lead over Mamdani the whole time — suggesting voters who ranked other candidates first are fairly evenly split between the leading contenders. The Mamdani supporters' poll, meanwhile, demonstrates Mamdani picking up 16 percentage points from the first to the eighth round, while Cuomo gains 11. That suggests the anti-Cuomo DREAM strategy — an acronym for Don't Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor, promoted by the Working Families Party — is reaching more voters, who are choosing to leave Cuomo off their ballots entirely. Meanwhile, Cuomo and the main super PAC backing him have started going after Mamdani, who told NBC New York on Monday that indicates his rise in the polls. 'His decision to start focusing on me in the final weeks of this race shows the fact that he is scared,' Mamdani said. 'Scared of the fact where he once had a 40-point lead, it is now in single digits.'
