Family Foundations Academy Considers Filing A D&O… Say What Now?

On the agenda for Family Foundations Academy’s finance committee, there is a very odd item.  Charles McDowell, also the President of FFA and East Side Charter School’s board, runs this committee.  He is also an attorney and knows his stuff.  So why would FFA potentially file a D&O Insurance Claim?  What is a D&O?

It stands for Directors and Officers.  There are several reasons why a non-profit corporation (which charter schools are) would file a D&O.  From the Travelers Insurance website:

Coverage for defense costs and damages (awards and settlements) arising out of wrongful act allegations and lawsuits brought against an organizations board of directors and/or officers.

Wikipedia goes a bit deeper:

Directors and officers liability Insurance (often called D&O) is liability insurance payable to the directors and officers of a company, or to the organization(s) itself, as indemnification (reimbursement) for losses or advancement of defense costs in the event an insured suffers such a loss as a result of a legal action brought for alleged wrongful acts in their capacity as directors and officers. Such coverage can extend to defence costs arising out of criminal and regulatory investigations/trials as well; in fact, often civil and criminal actions are brought against directors/officers simultaneously. Intentional illegal acts, however, are typically not covered under D&O policies.

I am not aware of any current lawsuits against FFA, but I did go to the Delaware Court Connect website and there is nothing listed there.  Just to be on the safe side, I checked the following individuals as well: Sean Moore, Tennell Brewington, and Charles McDowell.  Nothing with them either.  Which means something may be coming.  So what could possibly cause McDowell and the school’s finance committee to consider filing this type of claim?

All charter schools, as corporations, are required to file an IRS Form 990.  The last one FFA has on their website is from 2012, and it shows Brewington as the Principal Officer and Moore as the Co-Director.  As everyone in Delaware surely knows, the two were alleged to have made out with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school piggy bank…

Could it be… is it… are we finally going to know something on the fate of the former heads of school at FFA?

Here’s the agenda: