STL charter school under scrutiny for private management

The Missouri Charter Public School Commission is looking into the private management behind a charter school in St. Louis.

Prior to the opening of Kairos Academies, the school’s founders created Kairos Academies Vanguard for “charitable and educational purposes," according to Missouri secretary of state records. The nonprofit employs 36 staff members of the school's 56-person workforce.

Vanguard reportedly has qualified as a quasi-governmental body subject to Missouri Sunshine Law because its primary purpose is to contract with a taxpayer-funded school. It has received and used millions of taxpayer dollars.

School leaders have said the organization is exempt from releasing financial information and participating in an educators’ pension fund.

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.