A state auditor said Noble Minds Institute, a former New Orleans charter school, may have improperly used more than $600,000 of public funds for rent, teacher incentives and consultants as it moved to become a private school, allegations that were met with a sharp defense from the school’s founder.
Noble Minds Institute, a K-8 school, opened in 2017 as a publicly funded charter school under the oversight of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. In June, after receiving an F-rating from the state for the 2023-2024 school year, the school gave up its charter.
In the fall, it opened as an independent private school that charged tuition, provided summer programs and offered full, or part-time programs for home-schooled students. It continued to use the Noble Minds name…