For more than a decade, the leaders of Accelerated Intermediate Academy have run their small Houston charter school on a lean budget, paying teachers below-average salaries and educating kids in modest facilities resembling portable trailers.

At the same time, the school's superintendent, Kevin Hicks, has drawn an annual salary of about $250,000 - a seemingly outsized sum given its roughly 275 students and 20 employees. The school is also sitting on a condo appraised at $450,000 and recently reported $12.5 million in cash reserves, records show.

"Wow. He definitely could have put more into the school," Kennessa Johnson, a former teacher at the charter, said of Hicks. "It was extremely basic in the school. There weren't even any windows."

The school's spending has raised questions about the management of the southwest Houston charter, which has received more than $55 million in taxpayer dollars since opening in 2001, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found.

Experts said relatively lax state oversight and instances of poor governance can lead to misspent tax dollars at charters, which are publicly funded schools run by nonprofits. Unlike at traditional public schools, board members of charters are chosen by fellow members, not local voters.

The school has performed well academically, regularly meeting state standards. But a Chronicle review of Accelerated Intermediate's tax and property records, along with an analysis of state salary databases and more than a dozen interviews, found:

Hicks' salary of $265,553 last year was about $85,000 more than any superintendent of a district with fewer than 500 students, according to Texas Education Agency data. His pay also topped the salaries of the Texas education commissioner and several Houston-area superintendents running much larger school districts. Seven parents and former teachers said Hicks rarely shows up at the Houston campus, with two staff members saying they had never met him despite working at the school for several months.

The charter in 2011 used taxpayer money to buy a ninth-floor, one-bedroom condominium in Houston's ritzy Uptown neighborhood. School officials refused to say how much they paid, but the Harris County property appraiser this year valued it at $450,000.

Accelerated Intermediate has been stockpiling cash while limiting spending on teacher salaries and facilities for students. In 2016, the school's $12.5 million in cash reserves were enough to cover six years of operating expenses, according to its most recent financial audit. Many charter and traditional school districts only keep three to six months of operating expenses.

One of the school's three governing board members, James Broadnax, was unaware of basic information about Accelerated Intermediate when approached by a Chronicle reporter last month. Broadnax didn't offer any justification for Hicks' compensation, saying he didn't know all the facts. He said he knew the school had office space, but didn't know it owned a condo.

Still, the TEA said it has no issues with Accelerated Intermediate's spending.

Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said charter school boards have the authority to set employee salaries, and Hicks' compensation is "not a basis for an investigation." The condo purchase, Culbertson said, has been deemed above-board because school officials "told us it was used for charter school purposes."

Efforts to reach Hicks and the school's two other board members were unsuccessful. In response to emailed questions, the Chronicle instead received three lengthy messages from the school's primary email address. The messages were unsigned and the sender refused to identify himself or herself.

The charter school representative wrote that Hicks deserves his compensation because he performs many more tasks than leaders of large charter and traditional school districts. The writer also says the condo is used for office and storage space, calling it a sound investment because the school will build equity in the property rather than paying rent. Finally, the author writes that the district's large cash reserves reflect sound financial management.

"Everything you are inquiring about is reflected in our superior financial ratings each year and has already been fully vetted, as all funds must be. We owe YOU no further explanation," the school representative writes. The author notes that the charter school has received an "A" grade in the most recent ratings from the Houston nonprofit Children At Risk.

Texas' charter school system is built on the idea that less regulation will foster innovation in education.

Successful charters have introduced unique teaching methods and offered parents additional choices for their children's education. Many have records of sound financial management, and research has shown that students in some perform far better than their peers in traditional public schools.

However, poorly governed charter schools can misuse taxpayer dollars and fail children in the classroom. Bruce Baker, a Rutgers University professor and leading researcher of charter school finance and governance, said state lawmakers frequently provide little clarity on what is unacceptable charter school management.

"There isn't really an established kind of legal or ethical framework that operates across state charter school laws," Baker said. "So, much about this ends up being just kind of a perception thing."

School on the rise

Accelerated Intermediate serves its 275 Houston-area children at a facility off Texas 90, near the Fondren Gardens neighborhood. The student population is mostly made up of African-American and Hispanic students, nearly all of whom are economically disadvantaged. A second campus, in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, serves about a dozen students a year.

Hicks co-founded Accelerated Intermediate after working as a teacher and administrator in Dallas ISD for 10 years and as principal of The Varnett Public School for two years. His founding partner, David Fuller, also worked at Varnett and would later open C.O.R.E. Academy, a south Houston charter that was shut down this year due to repeated academic failures.

Accelerated Intermediate grew from a couple hundred students initially to nearly 700 in 2007-08, receiving $5.9 million in taxpayer dollars that year.

Corintha Rawlins, whose daughter attended Accelerated Intermediate in its early years, praised the school.

"They had good teachers, and to me, I felt like they were more hands-on with the children," Rawlins said. "Every teacher knew every child's name, and that's a plus to me."

But enrollment started to decline over the next two years, and four of the school's five governing board members left. Board president Reginald Hernandez stayed on and was joined by two new members, Broadnax and Thelma Jones.

Hicks, who earned about $142,000 in 2007-08, started getting large annual raises under the new board. By 2010-11, his compensation topped $200,000. Last school year, it reached $265,553 a year.

By comparison, the superintendents of Houston's two largest charter school districts - KIPP Houston and Yes Prep, with 13,347 and 10,258 students, respectively - received lower salaries than Hicks in 2016-17. So did the superintendents of Pasadena (56,282 students), Spring (36,698), Goose Creek (23,926) and Tomball (14,932). Some superintendents also receive additional benefits, such as contributions to retirement savings accounts.

Michael Ford, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh assistant professor who has written extensively about charter schools, said Hicks' compensation "sounds absurdly high" for a 275-student school district.

"When you start getting into the $250,000 range, you're usually looking at somebody who's overseeing a large number of charter schools in a complex urban setting," Ford said.

The governing boards of charter schools typically set superintendent salaries, but it's not immediately clear who approves Hicks' compensation. In response to a request for Hicks' contract, the school provided "letters of intent" that contained his annual pay. However, the letters do not contain any names of board members or signatures. Board meeting minutes also do not reflect any discussion or approval of Hicks' salary in recent years.

Broadnax, who spoke briefly with the Chronicle from the doorway of his Dallas home, didn't offer any reason why Hicks merited his salary. He openly wondered whether Hicks' compensation included overtime pay and if Hicks was performing the tasks of multiple administrators. Asked if he's reviewed or approved a contract for Hicks, Broadnax declined comment.

"I don't know what the facts are. Let's put it that way," Broadnax said. "I want to make sure - I want to verify."

Broadnax could not be reached for comment on follow-up questions.

Johnson, the former Accelerated Intermediate teacher, said she never met Hicks during her nine months on the job in 2012-13.

"The farthest we could go up the chain of command was the principal," said Johnson, who left to teach at Houston ISD. "We were always told he was coming, he was going to be around, that you'd never know when he was coming."

A luxury purchase

Two years after Hicks' salary started rising, the school in June 2011 bought a 1,118-square-foot residence in Cosmopolitan Condominiums, a 22-story high-rise near The Galleria shopping mall. An online listing shows the property has floor-to-ceiling windows, hardwood floors and access to a pool with skyline views. Public records related to the deed bear Hicks' signature on behalf of the charter.

School officials did not respond to requests for information about the condominium's cost. However, the property was appraised at $375,000 in January 2011 and $455,917 in January 2012.

The school representative who emailed the Chronicle wrote that the condo was used for "back office support and SECURE storage of historical records." Those records, the author continued, couldn't be kept at the school because of repeated break-in attempts.

The writer also reasoned that the charter preferred buying property instead of paying rent, and that its options were "very limited."

The author didn't explain why the school opted for the condo when cheaper storage and office space were available.

Broadnax, who was on the Accelerated Intermediate board during the year when the school bought the condo, said he didn't know the charter owned it but was aware the school had office space in a Houston high-rise.

"I need to talk to (Hicks) and see what's going on," Broadnax said.

Carrie Irvin, the CEO and co-founder of Charter Board Partners, a national nonprofit that promotes strong charter school governance, said it's a best practice for board members to be engaged in major purchases.

"We want them to be proactively providing oversight on finances to the school," said Irvin, who did not know details about Accelerated Intermediate and was speaking generally about charter governance.

Silvia Graves, the board president of Amigos Por Vida - Friends For Life, a successful charter school with about 500 students in Houston's Gulfton neighborhood, said her campus has no need for off-site space. She said security systems ensure confidential records are properly retained at the school.

"In more than 15 years, it never came up that we had to keep records away, and we are in a high-risk neighborhood," Graves said. "To buy another property for that? No, we wouldn't do that."

Breaking the bank

In the years following the condo purchase, Accelerated Intermediate has been squirreling away large amounts of cash.

The charter reported about $12.5 million in cash as of August 2016, according to a financial statements, an enormous "rainy day" fund given that the school spends about $2 million per year on operations. Ford, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor, called the cash reserves "very bizarre."

"Any time you're getting to the point where you have more than two years of operating revenue in surplus, that's when the board should be asking questions," Ford said.

The Accelerated Intermediate representative suggested large cash reserves can be spent by public schools in two ways: recruiting and retaining high-quality educators through larger salaries, and paying for classroom or office space.

But to date, Accelerated Intermediate does not appear to have spent its reserves on either.

In recent years, the school has paid most of its teachers - including experienced educators - about $35,000 to $45,000 annually, according to a TEA database. By comparison, the starting salary at traditional districts in the Houston area is about $50,000.

Meanwhile, the Houston school has housed its students for a decade in two windowless buildings on a 7-acre property that lacks playground equipment. School leaders have apparently only discussed a new Houston facility during governing board meetings on one occasion in the past four years - in November 2016, according to board meeting minutes obtained through a public records request.

'A state problem'

Under state law, the TEA can intervene if a charter school's spending and governance fails to "satisfy generally accepted accounting standards of fiscal management." The state education commissioner can remove board members or revoke the school district's charter. The TEA is has considering intervening under a different law in the Houston ISD, where 10 chronically under-performing schools could be subject to state takeover next year.

But the definition of proper fiscal management is subject to interpretation, and charter schools receive significant freedom on spending matters. For example, TEA officials said a charter school superintendent's salary is a "local-level decision" that has never been subject to a state investigation.

Thomas Ratliff, who served on the State Board of Education from 2011 to 2016, said he found little interest in reining in salaries of highly-paid charter school superintendents when he raised the issue while on the board.

The state "largely washes their hands of it and says, 'That's not our problem,'" Ratliff said. "But if it's all state money, candidly, it is a state problem."

State and federal funds comprise virtually all of the revenue for Accelerated Intermediate.

Several parents said they've been satisfied with the Houston school's teachers and principal. In recent years, the school has received several "certificates of distinction," given to campuses that rank in the top 25 percent for achievement among Texas schools of similar size and demographics.

"I kind of like the school and the way it's run," said Isaac Achina, whose first-grade son has attended the charter for three years. "The teachers are really serious about the kind of instruction they give to the kids."

Still, some parents said news of the school's spending - particularly the superintendent's compensation - concerns them.

Hicks "really does need to be more hands-on with those kids," said Rawlins, the mother of three students at the school. "If that's what it's really about - the kids - then you need to do the work. If it's about the money, then what are you doing there?"