State officials are investigating a Brooklyn charter network whose woeful financial management was detailed in The Post last month, a source familiar with the probe said.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has issued a subpoena seeking financial and governance documents from the Believe High Schools Network — which operates three charter high schools in Williamsburg.
The probe, which appears to be the first by a New York attorney general of a charter-management firm, could usher in increased oversight of the fees and services supplied by charter groups, the source said.
Asked about an investigation, a spokesman for Schneiderman said, “We cannot comment on potential or ongoing matters before the office.”
The Post wrote last month how the Believe network charged the Williamsburg Charter HS $2.3 million in management fees in 2009-10 — well above the citywide average.
The founder and CEO of the network, Eddie Calderon-Melendez, had also founded the Williamsburg Charter HS years earlier.
Under the network’s guidance, the school shelled out more than $750,000 in consulting fees last year and was scheduled to pay $2.3 million for space on Varet Street this year — all using taxpayer funds.
At the same time, the school was forced to suddenly shed 20 teachers from its payroll in January, and by year’s end administrators had to rely on teachers to volunteer to sweep up their classrooms and throw out hallway trash because of a custodial funding shortage.
The school also got into hot water in 2010 for seeking to address an enrollment shortage by offering students $100 a head to recruit other kids.
“It’s about time the AG’s Office takes a look around — they’ll have a lot to work with,” said one ex-staffer. “Mr. Melendez always likes to say that finances and compliance are the two things he and the board handle exceptionally well, but this doesn’t pass the laugh test.”
Neither Calderon-Melendez nor a Board of Trustees member responded to e-mails seeking comment.
The group’s finances have been unusually difficult to inspect because, as of last month, the network had not yet registered as a nonprofit, as required.
When asked in May about the delay, a network official blamed bureaucratic snafus.
The two other schools managed by the network — Believe Northside and Believe Southside high schools — paid it a total of $540,000 in management fees in 2009-10, their first year of operation.
Neither school — both also co-founded by Calderon-Melendez — had filed its required annual report with the state as of last month.