By Shauna Lund, Iron County School District
During Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, members learned more about a special education audit at SUCCESS Academy and recommended steps for moving forward as the authorizer of the early-college charter school.
Legal counsel Scott Garrett briefed the board about its role with SUCCESS Academy. He said that role is separate from the contracted role to provide assistance with school finance, human resources, special education and technology. Garrett also noted the contract agreement, referred to as a Memorandum of Agreement, had not been updated since 2021. Even more concerning, he said, was the lack of an updated charter agreement.
The charter was created in August of 2004. Since that time, he said, the state has revised laws governing charter schools and oversight requirements of charter authorizers. He recommended an immediate update and adoption of a formal charter agreement as well as an updated outline of contracted services and costs.
Garrett was asked for a legal opinion on the authorizing requirements following a compliance audit which looked at special education funding and services at SUCCESS.
He recommended the Board formally notify the state superintendent of the audit’s findings and adopt a state-approved remediation plan.
SUCCESS Executive Director Colin Metzger reviewed the audit with the board. He said GYST Compliance & Investigation performed the independent audit after concerns were reported to Iron County School District and SUCCESS Academy’s governing board. The findings were reviewed with SUCCESS Academy’s governing board in June 2026. The review uncovered “account blurring” in consultant payments and payroll, missing service logs, technology lockouts, and siloed disciplinary records that risked disparate treatment of students.
Metzger said SUCCESS Academy is already executing recommended overhauls on its Southern Utah University campus and Utah Tech University campus. Those overhauls include designation of a special education compliance officer, unified discipline tracking and contracted special education services with ICSD and Washington County School District. Metzger noted this decision reflected the school needs and accounted for the low special education student enrollment. Both campus principals are also in the process of obtaining special education certifications.
Board members must now consider three options: continue as the authorizer of SUCCESS after completing a new agreement, initiating termination of the charter which has several legal requirements or transferring the charter to another authorizer, such as the State Charter School Board. However, he did note that the third option was something that would have to be initiated by SUCCESS’ Board, not by the ICSD Board.
Board members discussed their next steps with Board Member Tyrel Eddy noting that if the Board was moving towards termination, it should not spend time drawing up a new charter agreement. All agreed that students must be considered in any decision.
The Board will discuss next steps during Tuesday’s business meeting.