The now infamous Prime Prep Academy shut its door permanently a year ago with less than an hour's notice. Students walked away from the Dallas and Fort Worth campuses with no school. Employees left without jobs or paychecks for their final month of work.

With tears and anger, the state's most hyped and scrutinized charter - thanks in part to co-founder Deion Sanders - ceased to exist. Long after the school's demise, its legacy continues beyond Sanders' reality show and former Prime Prep basketball star Emmanuel Mudiay's entry into the NBA.

A pair of lawsuits is still active, even after others were dropped. One targets the nonprofit work that led up to creation of the school, while the other was filed by ex-Prime Prep employees against school administrators. And local, state and federal officials launched investigations into wrongdoing. The school failed not because of tough new rules meant to shut down failing charter schools. Instead, financial mismanagement fueled the slow motion collapse and led to the school's eventual insolvency.

Former Dallas ISD trustee Ron Price served as Prime Prep's superintendent for most of the school's final year. (G.J. McCarthy/Dallas Morning News)

Ron Price, a former Dallas ISD trustee who was superintendent for much of the last year, was hired to turn around the school.

He said he was misled about the school finances when he was hired, misled in the final months and rebuffed when he tried to cut expenses.

"If everybody involved would have been more truthful to me and our new team, I still believe we could have saved it," he said.

Board President T. Christopher Lewis said the school's demise could be traced back to early mistakes made by the school's nonprofit sponsor Uplift Fort Worth -- not to be confused with the respected and still operating Uplift Education.

Demarquis Brooks, 10, a fifth grader, sheds tears as he leaves Prime Prep Academy for the last time in Fort Worth on Jan. 30, 2015. A state-appointed board of managers closed the school, which was co-founded by former Dallas Cowboys star Deion Sanders. The school was financially insolvent. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News)

"The issues with Prime Prep started before Prime Prep was even formed," he said. "That was the ultimate demise of the financial situation...I will always have a great deal of regret that we couldn't take a great idea and great opportunity and do more with it."

When asked to comment via text message, Sanders said "That's the dumbest thing I've heard all year." Sanders, who was fired, rehired, fired and rehired at the school, initially pitched Prime Prep as a school that would create CEOs; succeed where other public schools failed; and do "good in the hood."

But the school was marred by controversy from the beginning (here's a timeline with some of those details) and the perception that it focused on athletics to the exclusion of academics. In 2013, the year ended with a high-profile fight for control between Sanders and co-founder D.L. Wallace, who was forced out of the school.

Prime Prep started 2014 with hope and ambition, much like it had when the school opened in 2012. Here's a look at the final 13 months of Prime Prep and particularly the financial, legal and regulatory problems that led to its closure. This story is based on news stories, lawsuits, school documents, Texas Education Agency and Texas Comptroller data and Prime Prep's bank register.

January, 2014. Enrollment: 580. State Funding: $397,867.

Prime Prep started the year under investigation by the Texas Education Agency. The TEA was looking into allegations of conflicts of interest, failure to perform required criminal background checks, inadequate financial reporting, lack of highly qualified teachers and violations in the National School Lunch Program. Also, a board member was suing the board president and sponsoring nonprofit over alleged open meetings violations.

The TEA determined later in the month that Prime Prep had failed to fingerprint and conduct background checks on 17 employees during 2013. One was Sanders.

Deion Sanders after he was first named Prime Prep's head coach.(Steve Hamm/Special Contributors)

In the first week, 10 employees were fired, and two resigned. The departures include the Fort Worth campus principal, chief financial officer and human resources director, who was married to Wallace. "We were too darn top-heavy as an institution," new Superintendent Ron Price said at the time. "Prime Prep will no longer be known as the financial lottery ticket for those who don't understand how to educate children."

The departures would lead to a temporary financial crisis. The outgoing staffers were the only ones authorized to access the Prime Prep bank account or pay bills.

Price would later say that the school had $400,000 in unpaid bills and a $700,000 deficit when he arrived the previous month.





The superintendent also turned over documents to the Tarrant County District Attorney's office alleging that hundreds of laptops had been stolen from Prime Prep. He later gave the information to the FBI.

At the end of the month, board members approved the school's first outside audit. It found no "material weaknesses in internal controls." But there were other problems, such as paperwork errors, missing paperwork and some lack of oversight.



February 2014. Attendance: 550. State Funding: $334,762.

Garland-based Zomax sued Prime Prep over allegedly unpaid remodeling expenses. The company claimed the school still owed about $85,000 from a $122,000 handshake deal for work on the Fort Worth campus. Zomax had filed a lien in October against Prime Prep for what Zomax claimed was about $53,000 in unpaid work on the Dallas campus. Zomax eventually dropped the lawsuit in May 2015, months after Prime Prep closed.

March 2014. Attendance: 550. State Funding: $389,480.

Prime Prep started leasing a $3,600 per month administrative offices near McKinney Avenue in Oak Lawn.

A supposed rent dispute at the beginning of the month led the landlord of the Fort Worth campus to lock out Prime Prep. School officials sued their landlord, Charity Church. Wallace had been a member of that church board and had a business relationship with its founder.

Students going to class at Prime Prep's Dallas campus. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)

Prime Prep sued Charity Church, claiming the lease was invalid. A previous lease that provided free rent was changed in 2014 to one charging $18,000 per month. Price claimed the chief financial officer wasn't authorized to sign that new lease.

The school moved its Fort Worth classes to an adjacent building Prime Prep had rented since early 2013.

Attendance - the basis for almost all of Prime Prep's money - slid slightly from 580 in January to 550 by March.

April 2014. Attendance: 515. State Funding: $381,986.

Prime Prep was kicked out of the National School Lunch Program, which subsidized meals for low-income students. State officials flagged problems with management of the program just a few months after the school opened in fall 2012.

The loss of the food funding suddenly created a monthly hole in Prime Prep's in budget; the amount ranged from about $19,000 to nearly $28,000 depending on enrollment and attendance. The school also owed nearly $46,000 in food reimbursement that it couldn't justify and had to repay to the state. This news didn't reach the public for another month.

Sanders donated $35,000 to Prime Prep. It's unclear if it was intended to help with the loss of the food program money. He wasn't employed at the school but filmed his reality TV show, Deion's Family Playbook, there for free.

A Prime Prep board meeting ended prematurely after a trustee and Price got into a shouting match. The board member, Okey Akpom, who was suing the school, was briefly and accidentally locked out of the meeting.

May 2014. Attendance: 515. State Funding: $326,777.

Prime Prep's dismissal from the National School Lunch Program finally became public. The TEA also sent a letter threatening to start charter revocation proceedings if Prime Prep didn't create a suitable plan for funding and operation its food program. Administrators committed to continuing to feed its students.

June 2014. Attendance: 511. State Funding: $297,198.

Prime Prep asked a Tarrant County judge for sanctions against Fredrick Mays, the head of Charity Church. The lawsuit filing claimed Mays entered the Fort Worth campus - in violation of an injunction - and "intimidated teachers and staff, and took school property."

July 2014. Attendance: 511. State Funding: $228,759.

Full Gospel Holy Temple, owner of Prime Prep's Dallas campus, started charging the school for rent. That added another $12,500 in monthly expenses. In late 2013, Prime Prep lost its free rent in Fort Worth.

Decals peel off the classroom walls at Prime Prep Academy in Dallas. (Cooper Neill/The New York Times)

August 2014. Attendance: 511. State Funding: $355,131.

Price said the school had a "crisis" and needed $100,000 to $150,000 to meet payroll. Its revenue had fallen by half during the summer.

The board gave Price the authority to seek stop-gap funding for the school, even though the school had already received a $100,000 loan a month earlier.

Board members also overhauled Prime Prep's bylaws and policies to try to prevent the mismanagement of the past. "We have to be more engaged," new board member Ken Green said after that meeting.

The TEA rating Prime Prep "improvement required" for its academics. That was the second consecutive year of that rating. A third would mean loss of its charter.





Prime Prep's Devonte' Bailey (1) drives past the defense of Triple A Academy's King McClure (22) in November 2013. (Steve Hamm/Special Contributor)

The state announced it was cutting off funding for students at Prime Prep's Fort Worth campus. The school had twice moved that campus without notifying the TEA or getting permission. That would eventually cost the already financially-strapped school nearly $490,000.

The school was also seeking a new food vendor, which was more difficult than it appeared. Price said at the time that vendors - fearful of Prime Prep's finances - were demanding payments upfront. The school's old food vendor was suing over claims of owed money.

Sanders - still not employed by the school - held a parents meeting at A.W. Brown-Fellowship Leadership Academy and encouraged parents of fourth- through eighth-graders to transfer there. Without the knowledge of the superintendent, Sanders convinced staff to used Prime Prep's telephone notification system to get word to parents. The robocall message said his announcement would be a "gift from God." "The devil thought they had us but baby, woo, we got blessed ," Sanders said in the recording.

Without specifically naming Sanders, Price later said this about the A.W. Brown issue: "This devious act crippled our income stream and destroyed our operating budget."



Prime Prep also lost its charter revocation appeal to the TEA. The school's last chance was an appeal to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.

You've won & lost battles that ultimately cost you friends,family,finances and time. Everything ain't worth fighting for. #Think#TRUTH — Deion Sanders (@DeionSanders) August 29, 2014

Staff was issued paper checks instead of the usual direct deposits. Some employees cashed the checks during their lunch break out of fear they might bounce.

The school's fame - or infamy - was also growing. The New York Times and Al Jazeera America both ran stories about the school and its controversies.

DineRite LLC, the school's food vendor, filed a lawsuit claiming Prime Prep didn't pay $32,870.50 for meals provided in May and June. The school later defaulted on that lawsuit.

Late that month, Sanders also organized a meeting with TEA staff and A.W. Brown officials about a possible merger without the authorization of the superintendent or board. That was immediately rejected by education Commissioner Michael Williams.

Price would later say that he should have recommended closing Prime Prep in August.

September 2014. Attendance: 580 (projected), 287 (actual). State Funding: $426,624.

Prime Prep received its first state payment of the new school year based on inflated attendance expectations. School officials hoped for a large increase in students despite near constant scandal, the threat of closure by the state and Sanders attempts to undercut enrollment.

The school officials settled its dispute with Charity Church over the lease of the Fort Worth campus.

Officials projected they would received $4.6 million from the state for the 2014-15 school year. That was about $1 million more than projections in the spring.

October 2014. Attendance: 287. State Funding: $239,939.

Prime Prep and its nonprofit sponsor, Uplift Fort Worth, was the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging wrongdoing in the National School Lunch Program. The plaintiff - an individual who previously sued Sanders over a business venture - filed the lawsuit in 2013. It wasn't unsealed until October. The lawsuit is ongoing.

A scene at Prime Prep's Dallas campus when the school open in 2012. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)

November 2014. Attendance: 301. State Funding: $233,211.

On Nov. 3, Sanders gave Prime Prep another $50,000, allowing it to barely stay afloat.

The board was briefed in a closed session about the school's financial troubles. State funding for the year had dropped by about $2 million.

Someone in administration stopped paying money owed to the Texas Workforce Commission. Price would later say he was unaware bills weren't paid and didn't authorize that.

The school's final appeal to the State Office of Administrative Hearings was initially set for this week but was rescheduled for Jan. 27.

Price agreed to a 10 percent salary cut, a savings of a little more than $600 per month. He also donated $1,000 to the district.

Prime Prep spent nearly $50,000 more than it received in state funding in November. There were tens of thousands more in bills that weren't paid

December 2014. Attendance: 288. State Funding: $185,461.

The school December funding from the TEA was subjected to a hold by the Texas Workforce Commission over the school's mounting debt.

Prime Prep stopped pay rent on its Dallas administrative offices in Oak Lawn and the Fort Worth campus. The school also stopped making payment on its $100,000 loan. The school repaid the money plus $17,000 in interest. It still owed another $27,000.

DineRite LLC, the former food contractor, sued Prime Prep for payment. The company had won a lawsuit against the charter school but was never paid. DineRite dropped the lawsuit in May.

On the last day of the year, former CFO Kevin Jefferson sued Prime Prep for breach of contract and assault. Sanders was cited for misdemeanor assault of Jefferson during a 2013 staff meeting. Later, Jefferson was fired. He won a $234,000 judgment against the defunct Prime Prep in April 2015.

January 2015. Attendance: 288. State Funding: $184,482

Price announced he would resign as superintendent at the end of the month. "The school can no longer support itself without financial aid," he said. "The previous administration was not accountable for their actions, and the negative financial effect it placed on the school's operations has been far more devastating than originally expected."

Prime Prep employees revealed that they lost their healthcare coverage in late 2014 when Prime Prep administrators stopped paying premiums.





Twanna Washington (left) comforts her daughter Terrianna Washington, 13, a sixth grader, as she gets out of class at Prime Prep Academy for the last time in Fort Worth. (Rose Baca/The Dallas Morning News)