Charter business owned by Rep. Donalds’ wife cut side deals with construction firm, lawsuit claims

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and his wife, Erika Donalds

By Will Bredderman, FloridaBulldog.org

Taxpayer-funded charter schools overseen by the wife of Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds gave tens of millions in construction contracts to a Jacksonville firm that, according to one irate academy’s lawsuit, simultaneously set up investment vehicles to plow money into her side ventures.

That’s just one allegation included in a civil complaint the Treasure Coast Classical Academy (TCCA), a K-12 charter in Stuart, brought in late 2024 against Erika Donalds’ Optima Foundation, recently rechristened the Educational Freedom Foundation. As the Florida Bulldog reported in June, Treasure Coast Classical was one of three publicly financed, privately run schools Donalds helped launch that severed their multimillion-dollar management contracts with her and her organization in 2023.

The auditor for the other two schools, Jacksonville Classical Academy and Jacksonville Classical East, described “deficiencies” in Optima’s accounting practices in a report to the state disclosing the terminated contracts. But Treasure Coast’s filing contained no such details — unlike the lawsuit, which alleged the Optima Foundation repeatedly violated their agreement, including through shoddy maintenance of records and school grounds, and not returning the academy’s property. It also accused Erika Donalds’ group of not properly apprising the school’s board of its dealings with subcontractors, including Jacksonville-based Summit Construction Management Group LLC, with which it alleges the nonprofit had an undisclosed conflict of interest.

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Charter business owned by Rep. Donalds’ wife cut side deals with construction firm, lawsuit claims

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