PHOENIX (AP) — The former principal of a Goodyear charter school has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution in a fraud case.
State prosecutors say Harold Cadiz was sentenced for his role in enrolling fake students to obtain funding from the Arizona Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cadiz worked at the now-closed Bradley Academy of Excellence, a K-8 charter school. Prosecutors say Cadiz reported hundreds of fake student profiles to the state education department to fraudulently get additional funding for the financially failing school.
The fake students were enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s school lunch program during the 2016-18 school years.
