NEWARK, Ohio — There seems to be some confusion about whether a program that provides online educational services through a Columbus charter school is itself a school or a nonprofit agency.

Newark public-school officials accuse the 2-year-old operation that uses the name Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow of failing to provide adequate educational services to students. Newark officials consider it a charter school.

"Based on parental complaints, we believe the (charterschool) program is failing to meet even minimum standards of operation and, as a result, may be committing fraud by taking state funds for education services it is not providing to students," Superintendent Keith Richards said in a letter.

Richards sent the letter Monday to Sandra C. Frisch, superintendent of the Lucas County Educational Service Center. The agency sponsors the Columbus charter school called Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, a statewide online school with 7,000 students enrolled. Lucas County officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A state audit released in July showed that poor record-keeping prevented the charter from proving whether some of the students for whom it received state funding were actually enrolled. A spokesman for the company said those issues had been addressed.

Richards said yesterday that the charter school has received about $423,000 this year from the state for students who have left Newark schools.

But charter spokesman Nick Wilson said the Newark operation is merely a nonprofit agency that is affiliated with the charter school through its Alternative Learning Communities Program. That program is offered through 12 agencies statewide, including teen pregnancy centers and group homes. The east side Newark operation is called Newark Arts and Music Too.

"I just think they are misinformed," Wilson said of Newark schools officials.

"We’re investigating. We want to make sure everything is going the way that it should be going."

Rita Jackson, director of the Newark operation, said students use the 42 computers in the building to work with Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow teachers online. Some students also participate from home.

"This is just a tiny program helping unwed mothers and kids who did not do well in a traditional school," said Jackson, a former Newark teacher. "This is just a smokescreen. They’ve got to explain to the public why kids are leaving the schools."

Information collected by two attendance officers for the Newark schools shows that most of the local charter students don’t have computers at home or Internet access. Interviews with 10 students show some had logged in on their computers only twice in a two-month period.

"I think this school ought to measure up to providing quality education or be shut down," Richards said.

A spokeswoman with the Ohio Department of Education, which received a copy of Richards’ letter, said officials will contact the Lucas County agency and are confident that any problems can be resolved.

tsheehan@dispatch.com