I and the board take responsibility for what has happened, says Lennart Sund, former principal of Skvaderns upper secondary school in Sundsvall, to the newspaper that has examined the school's handling of millions in a series of articles.
Both Sund and the former chairman of the board say they are filled with regret over what has happened. The further fate of the school's millions has not been known before.
Asked for more
The school has existed since 2002, has a good reputation and had 570 students last semester. But as recently as last year, the school complained to the municipality about a strained economy and asked for more money.
It was thus the year after the board allowed five members to share 14 million kronor.
I am speechless. It feels very strange to see this in the newspaper about them taking out millions in profits, considering the conversation we had less than a year ago, says Olle Åkerlund (S), chairman of the education committee in Sundsvall, to the newspaper.
"Blinded by speed"
The former principal and chairman of the board talk about having become blinded by speed, but that they acted based on advice from auditors. The solution to distribute school funds to the board instead of openly declaring it as profit and then giving dividends was chosen to keep the equity value of the shares low. This would make it cheaper for new shareholders to buy in.
Education Minister Lotta Edholm (L) says she is unable to comment on individual cases.
But on the other hand, I can state that we must find a system where the unhealthy driving forces in the free school sector disappear. The profit interest leads to this type of problem, and the free school inquiry is now working on presenting proposals for a profit ban, says Lotta Edholm to TT.
