The executive director of a now-defunct Antelope Valley charter school has been charged in an alleged scheme to embezzle more than $150,000 in public funds within six months of petitioning the Antelope Valley Unified High School District to establish the Synergy School of Arts and Technology, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Derrick Devaul Spiva, 64, of Lancaster, is set to be arraigned Nov. 16 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on one felony count each of misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement of public funds, grand theft, money laundering and conflict of interest, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The school opened in September 2023 with about 100 students enrolled on two campuses in Lancaster, with officials discovering the missing funds after the school opened, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The prosecution alleges that Spiva stole more than $150,000 in public funds from Synergy’s bank account by making unauthorized payments to himself, his business and his domestic partner between June 2023 and October 2023, allegedly using some of the public funds for travel, theatre tickets and electronic devices.
He had petitioned the Antelope Valley Unified High School District’s to open the school as a “first-of-its-kind arts- and technology-based transitional kindergarten-through-12th-grade charter school in the Antelope Valley,” according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Spiva was terminated in November 2023 by the school’s board of directors, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which noted that the school closed the next month.
“Stealing public money meant to educate children is unconscionable,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement announcing the charges. “The alleged sequence of events in this case shows a brazen disregard for the Antelope Valley Unified High School District, students and the entire system of public education. My office has no tolerance for stealing from the public. Our Public Integrity Division will seek to hold the defendant fully accountable.”
Spiva — who is free on his own recognizance — could face up to six years and eight months in state prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office.