ENCINITAS -- The superintendent of the Encinitas Union School District said Thursday that the leaders of the Theory Into Practice Academy haven't done anywhere near enough to satisfy the district's demands for administrative change, and the district may take initial steps Tuesday to close the school.

"From the district's perspective, they have really failed to remedy the violations of law," Superintendent McLean King said, adding that he believes the academy's leaders have focused on a public relations campaign rather than making any real changes.

Neither the president of the academy's board of directors nor an attorney for the school could be reached for comment immediately after the district made its announcement late Thursday afternoon.

Academy board member Jake Bartow, reached on his cell phone while on a family vacation, said he had known the district was planning to issue a document related to his school this week, but hadn't heard what it would contain.

"I want to read it," he said, declining to comment until he returned home and had time to look it over.

Significant changes?

The district put the school on notice in early May that it was investigating various issues related to alleged fiscal mismanagement and conflicts of interest. Among other things, district officials said they had evidence that some board members were influencing other board members to hire their relatives for paid positions at the school. They also said the academy's board wasn't following state public meeting laws and had badly managed the school's money.

In a response letter in late May, attorneys for the academy wrote that the school's leaders disputed many of the district's allegations. However, the attorneys said that the school had taken a number of steps in an effort to satisfy the district's demands. Those included the termination of the contract of the academy's chief of operations officer, the restructuring of the academy's board and the cancellation of a proposed curriculum payment agreement.

On Friday, King said the district finds those measures to be halfhearted at best. The academy's board has been restructured, but its new president has some of the same conflicts of interest that now-former board members had, King said. The new president's wife has done paid contract work for the academy, he said.

Also, the former chief of operations officer -- Michael Hazelton -- appears to still be working at the school even though the school's board terminated his contract, King said. The district believes this to be the case, King said, because the district's technology consulting company received a call Wednesday from a man who identified himself as Hazelton and said he was with the academy.

Reached by telephone late Thursday afternoon, Hazelton said that it wasn't him.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said, adding that he was in the academy's office Wednesday packing up his personal items but didn't make a telephone call.

Revoking a charter

Encinitas Union's board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in closed session, then go into open session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss whether to issue a "notice of intent" to revoke the charter that allows the academy to operate. If the board votes to issue the notice, the district must hold a public hearing on the issue within 30 days, under state law.

After that public hearing, the district could vote to revoke the charter, King said.

The revoking of the charter doesn't necessarily mean the school on Melba Road would immediately close. The school could appeal the decision to the county Office of Education and the state Board of Education. During the appeals process, the school might remain open -- that's up to the state, King said.

The district could argue that the alleged charter violations are so serious that the academy should be closed while the appeal works its way through the system, he added. The district has evidence that the school's board members appear to have repeatedly met in violation of the state's open public meeting laws, he said.

An 18-page report issued by the district Thursday states that the school's board "routinely held meetings at times and in locations not noticed to the public, and on more than one occasion deliberately began meetings privately an hour before the district's representative to the (academy's) board was told to arrive."

In the district's view, that constitutes "willful defiance of the law," and district officials could argue to the state that such behavior ought to be grounds to close the school while the appeals process occurs, he said.

The two-year-old academy, which shares a campus on Melba Road with Ocean Knoll Elementary, got its start when a group of Oceanside teachers led by Deborah Hazelton decided to create their own charter school so they could have more flexibility to use special curriculum developed for intellectually gifted children.

The school, which has about 280 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, is Encinitas Union's only charter school. Charter schools receive public funding, but operate somewhat outside the regular school system. They have their own boards and are exempt from some of the requirements placed on traditional public schools.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.