CINCINNATI — The former head of a Cincinnati charter school that’s under state investigation for fraud borrowed $500,000 in 2023 from a company that received more than $2 million in payments from the school since 2021.
The WCPO 9 I-Team discovered the loan after reviewing dozens of public records that reveal a longstanding connection between former Dohn Community High School Superintendent Leando “Ramone” Davenport and Jonathan “Larry” Ballew, founder of two companies that provided construction and employee-training services to the school.
The Ohio Auditor’s office is investigating Dohn after its Columbus-based sponsor, Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, alerted its Special Investigations Unit last June that “there could be fraud happening” at Dohn.
Dohn permanently closed on March 31 with more than $1.8 million in liabilities from loans, liens, court judgments and unpaid payroll-tax withholdings, according to a March 27 court filing.
Dohn’s sudden closure came as a shock to parents, teachers and roughly 600 students, who are scrambling to find new schools that can keep their path to graduation intact. Known as a school of second chances, Dohn was established in 1999 to focus on “drop out recovery.” It used flexible schedules, online courses and satellite locations to help students age 16 and over stay on course for a high school diploma.
WATCH: Families try to find new schools for their children after Dohn closes abruptly
The school’s nonprofit governing authority blamed its collapse on Davenport, whose management company, the Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative, operated Dohn from 2019 until September of last year.
“Davenport mismanaged Dohn’s finances to benefit himself and others,” wrote attorney Adam Brown in a March 27 filing. “He executed agreements that he did not have authority to execute and kept those agreements secret from Dohn’s board of directors.”
But a national critic of the charter-school industry said the business relationships documented by the I-Team demonstrate a need for tighter regulation in Ohio.
“I think it’s unethical and unconscionable,” said Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for investments in public schools not charter schools.
“This could never occur in a public-district system in the state of Ohio,” Burris said. “But Ohio has very loose charter laws that are an invitation to grift and to fraud.”
'Outrageous spending'
The I-Team has been looking into business ties between Davenport and Ballew because they were called out in a series of letters that the Buckeye foundation wrote to state officials and Dohn’s attorneys between June and September of last year. Some of those letters came to light this year, when they were attached to court filings in a dispute over a Dohn construction project.
Davenport is a former coach and general manager of indoor football teams in Dayton and Steubenville, according to his resume, which was attached to Dohn’s March 27 court filing. He joined Dohn as a payroll administrator in 2009 and advanced to the role of superintendent by 2015, when he was a finalist for a “school leader of the year” award from the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Ballew is a former Cincinnati Public Schools principal, according to his LinkedIn bio, which touts his holding company, the Ballew Corporation, as “a comprehensive consultant” that “that provides workshops, program implementations, self-development and educational resources.”
The public records reviewed by the I-Team point to multiple overlaps between the 20 companies established by Davenport and Ballew since 2008, including Davenport’s management company, the Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative, and two Dohn vendors that were established by Ballew: Core Educational Services and Capital School Services.
“We are sending this notice to the Special Investigation Unit because we are very concerned about Dohn Community High School’s outrageous spending level in FY24, where $4.2 million taxpayer dollars are at stake,” wrote Jennifer Schorr, a Buckeye foundation vice president, on June 25, 2024.
Public record searches revealed no criminal history for either man.
WATCH: Looking into allegations of misspending at Dohn
Ballew told the I-Team he has no ownership in the collaborative and doesn’t work for the for-profit management company that operated the school from 2019 until its contract was terminated in September of last year. Ballew declined further comment.
The I-Team made several attempts to reach Davenport through companies he operated. None of those attempts were successful.
Why it matters
Ohio law prohibits public employees from using their authority to secure contracts for “the public official’s business associates.”
That’s why it’s a serious matter for Buckeye to suggest Ballew and Davenport are partners in the collaborative, said Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
While Nick wouldn’t comment on the Dohn investigation specifically, he said it isn’t easy to prove a public official steered contracts to a business associate.
“You’ve got to be able to not just come up with documents that suggest connections," Nick said. “You’ve got to have somebody to testify that ‘Yes, it exists.’”
In a 2010 advisory opinion, the Ohio Ethics Commission said state ethics rules and contracting laws apply to “all officers and employees of a community school,” except for teachers who perform no supervisory or administrative duties.
Nick said public school superintendents are required to finalize financial disclosure forms with the state, but charter school leaders are not.
“I would want to pull bank records, financial records, tax records, which you can get from subpoena,” Nick said. “And I’d just see how they’re formalizing the relationship, not just how it manifests itself in public records but how it’s being handled in financial records.”
Davenport and Ballew specifically “denied having any business relationship” in a September conversation with Dohn attorney Phyllis Brown, according to a March 27 affidavit.
But Dohn terminated its management agreement with the collaborative after Buckeye sent the school two documents refuting that claim.
One was a state certificate that listed Davenport as the organizer and Ballew as statutory agent for The Red Garden Lounge LLC, a restaurant company formed in April 2023. The second was an email in which a state official claimed Ballew described himself as Davenport’s partner.
“Mr. Ballew spoke with me about ‘opening a new online community school.’ He indicated he was affiliated with Cincinnati Charter Collaborative and identified Mr. Davenport as his partner,” wrote Colleen O’Grady, chief of educational options and policy for the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce.
Dohn attorneys were not aware until the I-Team told them this month that both men signed a real estate loan agreement on December 1, 2023, according to records on file with the Hamilton County Recorder.
The agreement called for Ballew’s company, Core Educational Service, to receive $525,000 in total payments for the 26-month loan. Davenport pledged his home as collateral, and later sold the home to AD Staffing LLC, which he incorporated in 2022.
State records show Ballew established Core Educational Services in 2015 to provide “edcational (sic) services and staffing” and “any other services deem necessary,” according to its articles of organization. Ballew changed the company’s name to Core Educational and Mental Health Services LLC in 2017.
Dohn paid Core Educational $1.8 million in its 2024 fiscal year to provide gun safety training, tuition payments for teachers and “professional development for various departments,” according to a September 11 letter to the Buckeye foundation from Dohn Treasurer Michael Ashmore.
Buckeye foundation attorney Adam Schira called that spending “egregious” in a September 18 letter to Phyllis Brown.
“This payment substantially exceeds fair market value for the services provided, violates both state public expenditure laws and federal private inurement prohibitions, and raises further ethical questions about the transaction,” Schira wrote. “The amount is not only excessive from a legal compliance standpoint, but it also has posed a severe operational threat to the school’s fiscal viability.”
Burris said public schools require competitive bidding and enforce conflict of interest rules to make sure business partners don’t gain an unfair advantage when seeking public contracts. But she argues Ohio’s charter-school management structures make it too easy to get around such restrictions.
Burris said 50% of Ohio charter schools are operated by for-profit management companies, overseen by volunteer boards that in turn contract with sponsors to gain access to state funding. She credits Dohn’s sponsor, the Buckeye foundation, for blowing the whistle last June, but questions how much fraud went undetected before that.
“The ultimate harm is to kids,” Burris said. “When you have these kinds of contracts that are maximizing profit for one or the other party, it's the children who lose. That's less money that's going to services for the kids. It's less money that's going for the classroom.”
Dohn pays the bills
Ballew has two companies that received a combined $5 million from Dohn Community High School since 2018, according to Dohn’s tax returns and court documents.
Core Educational Services received $2.3 million since 2020, while Capital School Services LLC got $2.8 million since 2018.
Ballew established Capital School Services in 2017 to provide "K-12 school construction and remodeling services." Dohn paid $917,000 to Capital School Services in the 12 months ending June 30, 2024, Ashmore told Buckeye last September.
“Capital School Services has been doing work for Dohn Community School off and on for about eight years,” Ashmore wrote. “They provide electrical, plumbing and remodeling (work) at several of Dohn’s locations.”
Ashmore’s letter was part of a pivotal month for Dohn. The Buckeye foundation was threatening to suspend its charter to operate in Ohio, while raising “major concerns about a number of vendors and what appears to be a misuse of public dollars on a very large scale.”
Those concerns were detailed for the first time in a September 16 response to Ashworth’s September 11 letter.
That response was a “preliminary report,” in which Buckeye questioned why Core Educational Services received $185,000 for “training on how Special Education works,” while another vendor was paid $212,000 for the same training. It also questioned whether Core Educational was overpaid.
“The services appear to be charged at very excessive rates outside of fair market value,” said the report. “The school was unable to provide any board minutes or resolution showing the vendor was even board approved.”
About Capital School Services, the report stated: “Multiple projects were completed at Dohn Auto ($28,000), which is not officially part of the school and should not be paid for by the school. We are not aware of any bid process being completed, and the contract was signed exclusively by the operator (meaning Davenport) and Mr. Ballew.”
New revelations emerge in lawsuits
Capital School Services also worked on a Dohn renovation project at 2900 Gilbert Ave. It ended in litigation this year, when the property’s owner, 2900 Investments LLC, sued to invalidate a lien filed against the property by J. Feldkamp Design Build, a Woodlawn-based subcontractor.
The case included lots of new detail and supporting documents that shed more light on the business relationships between Ballew and Davenport.
“Davenport selected New Day Renovations as general contractor for the construction project at 2900 Gilbert Ave. and apparently executed a contract with New Day,” said Michael Bauer, Dohn’s board chairman, in a March 25 affidavit. “Davenport had no authority to sign contracts on Dohn’s behalf since the 2019-2020 school year.”
The affidavit was submitted as part of Dohn’s defense against claims by 2900 Investments, which alleged Dohn “facilitated or abetted fraud” at 2900 Gilbert. Feldkamp separately alleged Davenport, Ballew and up to 100 additional “John Doe” defendants “misdirected funds earmarked for payment” to Feldkamp.
Davenport and Ballew have yet to respond to Feldkamp’s allegations. Dohn alleged Feldkamp had a side deal with Davenport.
“On September 9, 2024, Davenport secretly executed (a contract with Feldkamp) that purports to make Dohn liable for New Day’s payments … despite the fact that fact that New Day had already received payment from Dohn for this work,” said Dohn’s March 27 court filing. “Davenport never told the board about the agreement.”
Bauer’s description of New Day as a general contractor is at odds with Ashmore’s September 11 response to Buckeye, which said New Day was “contracted to help Capital Schools with the total renovations at 2900 Gilbert.”
But no one mentioned that on September 16, when Dohn’s board passed a resolution to “develop a matrix (to award) contracts based on competitive bidding and (establish) caps on the amount awarded to any contractor during each school year.”
That was followed by a September 17 conversation between Dohn attorney Phyllis Brown and Davenport, with Ballew participating by phone.
“I then asked if they had any business relationship whatsoever. Ballew and Davenport denied having any business relationship,” Brown said in a March 27 affidavit. “I asked Ballew about the rates charged by Core Educational Services. (Ballew) claimed they aligned with industry standards.”
When Brown relayed those details to the Buckeye foundation, attorney Adam Schira responded: “It is plainly evident that Dohn’s payments to Core were improper and contrary to law.” Schira’s September 18 letter said Buckeye “has submitted all relevant financial information” to the state auditor.
“Core provided professional development services that fall within the scope of the operator’s responsibilities in exchange for compensation in the form of a management fee,” Schira wrote. “Paying twice for these services (once to Core, and once to the operator) constitutes an impermissible misuse of Dohn’s public funds.”
Future fallout
Dohn’s board voted to terminate Davenport’s management contract on September 19. Two months later, it resolved to sell some of Dohn’s properties to fund operations through the end of the 2023-24 school year.
On March 10, it struck a deal with Performance Academies LLC, a Columbus-based charter school that agreed to pay $1.8 million for two buildings at 608 E. McMillan Street and 4100 Reading Road. It also agreed to make an advance payment of $550,000 to cover operating expenses and graduation ceremonies in 2024.
But that sale has been blocked by an April 1 court order that says Dohn “shall keep and preserve” all of its assets for at least 30 days, while 2900 Investments pursues its lawsuit to invalidate Feldkamp’s lien and seek monetary damages against Dohn and Feldkamp.
“The costs that 2900 will need to incur to restore the property … are currently estimated to be in excess of $500,000,” said the company’s amended complaint on March 11. It also wants Dohn to pay $90,375 for “outstanding invoices” and future rent of $712,600 for defaulting on the lease at 2900 Gilbert.
In the meantime, the auditor’s special investigations unit has confirmed it’s looking into the Buckeye foundation’s concerns without providing details of its investigation.
That same unit announced the conviction of a former charter school superintendent in 2023, when Roger Conners pleaded guilty to having an unlawful interest in a public contract for janitorial services at the Cincinnati Technology Academy.
That case involved contracts Conners signed as the academy’s director with a company called MC Services, which received $543,478 over seven years, ending in 2021. Investigators used bank records and un-named witnesses to show Conners controlled the company, even though it was owned by others.
The investigation took five years to complete. The original tip came to the auditor’s office from Hamilton County’s sheriff in 2018.
Burris said the Dohn case will be harder to prove because – unlike Conners – Davenport was not an employee of the charter school he ran.
Davenport worked for Dohn as an independent contractor to “manage its daily operations, make decisions about programs, oversee the school budget, manage personnel, and assess student performance and achievement,” according a 2022 contract signed by Davenport and Michael Bauer, chairman of Dohn’s board.
That’s why Burris thinks Ohio should be more concerned about preventing the next charter school scandal than simply investigating the last one.
“The lesson to be learned is we need dramatic charter school reform,” Burris said. “Put in bidding laws. Subject charter schools to the same bidding laws as public schools. Another thing I would do is ban for-profits from operating charter schools. And the third thing I would look at is why are there all these multiple authorizers? Many states have only one authorizer, which is a state body, and they don't do it for a fee.”
Burris said Ohio ranks near the top of states with 48% of its charter school closing within five years of opening, based on analysis she published last October through the National Center for Charter School Accountability. The report said 1.1 million students were impacted by charter school closures nationwide between 1999 and 2022, with the highest closure rates happening in states with the highest number of for-profit management companies.
“When these charter schools fail, very often kids will come back two years later. They turn their life around, they're ready to go to college, they can't even get their records,” said Burris. “Legislators need to be able to resist the lobby and reform laws to benefit taxpayers and students. And until that happens, Ohio is going to have more stories like this.”
