A state audit of the Na Wai Ola Waters of Life charter school on the Big Island said the school has been mismanaged, lacks adequate financial and management policies, and has failed to file legally required reports on its operations. In one case, a lack of oversight over hiring resulted in students being transported by a driver with felony convictions involving minors. The school has replaced its director and board, and says it is cleaning up its problems.

At the Kaua'i school, Kula Aupuni Niihau A Kahelelani Aloha, the board voted to keep administrator Hedy Sullivan, who was convicted of two felony assaults on her 11-year-old son. Prosecutors said Sullivan, who is facing five-year prison terms on each count, hurt the child with a baseball bat and a rope around his neck. The boy was put in foster care by state authorities.

Many of the state's charter schools are doing well and not experiencing those kinds of problems, said Wendy Lagareta, chief executive officer of Wai'alae Elementary Public Charter School. While Wai'alae is a conversion school — a public school that converted to a charter format for more autonomy — many of the schools with problems are startups that lack staff depth, facilities, maintenance budgets and more.

"My school is doing just great, but we are a conversion school, which means we don't face some of the problems that startup schools are dealing with," Lagareta said.

For instance, her school's board of directors has extensive experience, and board members get regular leadership training.

Harimoto said that in troubled schools, the capabilities of the boards themselves may be at issue. He believes the BOE should be able to step in and help, either through training of charter school board members or providing technical or educational expertise to the schools.

The Waters of Life audit seemed to agree with Harimoto's assessment that the existing charter schools law does not give the BOE the authority to step in to assist schools in trouble.

But "the expectation of the public is for us to be able to," Harimoto said.

"The Board of Education has no direct authority, legally. But these are examples of why the Board of Education should be allowed to get involved," Harimoto said.

Several charter school officials across the state said charter school board members often have little training and no clear picture of what their responsibilities are. They differ on whether they should handle such issues within their association or with the help of the BOE.

Gene Zarro, who works with the Kihei Public Charter High School on Maui and is president of the Hawai'i Charter Schools Network, said local boards for charter schools tend to be problematic.

There are built-in ethical conflicts, he said, as boards are often made up of school employees and parents with students at the school.

"The reality is — and this has come up with other charter schools — it's hard to get people to join these boards. It's not like you get a lot of applicants. You do end up with incestuous kind of boards with interrelationships," Zarro said.

His own school has a principal, teacher, student, parent and a part-time employee among its members.

"Local schools are designed to have vested interests represented on the board," but given those potential conflicts, boards at the very least need training, Zarro said.

John Thatcher, principal at the Connections charter school in Hilo, said local board governance is one of the trickiest issues for charter schools.

"The schools should be able to have their local governance, but if the local school board doesn't have the training to deal with the situation, they probably shouldn't be operating a school," said Thatcher, a former president of the Hawai'i Charter Schools Network.

Another former head of the charter schools association, Libby Oshiyama, said she feels the BOE ought to be responsible for seeing that local boards get some education in what they're supposed to be doing.

"Most boards have no training and the state has not provided training for charter school boards where they need it. With few exceptions — funding is another — this is the biggest problem that we face," Oshiyama said.

Zarro said he has served on other nonprofit boards, and has arranged for trainers to meet with the board of the Kihei charter school. He said the Charter Schools Network has discussed hiring board trainers as an organization, and having them meet with charter school boards.

"I don't want anyone to think there are quick fixes, but we'd like to do some board training, the typical type of training you'd get if you were, say, on the board of a nonprofit.

"It would deal with issues like due diligence, responsibilities, liabilities. Training would be optional, but most people should avail themselves of it. It keeps you out of hot water," Zarro said.