More questions, calls for accountability after Epic superintendent resigns

Yahoo

10-06-2025

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Less than a week after layoffs left Epic Charter Schools educators stunned, the district's longtime superintendent has resigned—leading to more questions and renewed calls for accountability.Last week, News 4 reported Epic laid off more than 350 employees, including nearly 100 teachers and all the district's principals—without giving remaining educators a game plan.
'We have not been told any information,' one teacher told News 4. 'How do you have a school without a principal?'Now, the person whose job it would be to come up with that game plan has thrown in the towel.Epic's superintendent and CEO Bart Banfield resigned on Monday.He'd been with the charter district since 2014, becoming superintendent in 2019.He led the school through a massive scandal when a grand jury indicted its three founders in 2022, accusing them of embezzling millions in taxpayer dollars from the district.Banfield was also at the helm during a round of teacher layoffs in October, blamed on declining post-COVID enrollment.On Monday, News 4 uncovered Epic payroll records showing, as enrollment went down, Banfield's yearly pay went up—from $276,885 in 2022 to $329,381 by 2025.Meanwhile, teachers spared in last week's layoffs told News 4 Epic made them sign agreements to cut their base pay by one-third or lose their jobs.'Everything felt like maybe a little bit disingenuous because it felt more like we are a machine than we are a public school system,' one teacher said.Staff who lost their jobs felt blindsided.'We just had our graduation ceremonies last weekend. There was no word then about anything like this,' a laid-off employee said.State Sen. Carri Hicks (D-Oklahoma City) said she isn't sure something so out-of-the-blue would have been allowed to happen if Epic were a traditional public school district.'It's a charter school,' Hicks said. 'They don't have a publicly elected school board that is really vetting these decisions. Their response, to be accountable to the public is very different than a traditional public school.'Former State Rep. Mark McBride, who chaired the House Education Committee when Epic's founders were indicted in 2022, sees a lot of parallels in the district's new issues.'It's the same—it's the same problem of managing money,' McBride said. 'I'll still always question whether this is a viable charter school for the state, because it seems like there's always something following them around from the beginning.'Hicks sees a potential solution.'When we look at states like North Carolina and other states across the country, they have very different models set up that would help prevent and protect the public from the actions that we're currently seeing from Epic Charter Schools,' Hicks said.She said the power to get there lies solely with lawmakers.'I think it's time to really look at some significant changes that would actually bring a stronger voice to the public and make sure that all charter schools are accountable to the public,' Hicks said.News 4 reached out to the president of the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board, which oversees Epic, to ask if he or the board had any thoughts on Banfield's resignation.News 4 did not hear back.
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