Draft:Michael Flory
American education administrator
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‘’‘Michael Flory’’’ is an American education administrator and accountant based in Edmond, Oklahoma. He is the Chief Financial Officer of Epic Charter Schools, a public virtual charter school system in Oklahoma serving approximately 28,500 students across all 77 counties. He previously served as Executive Director of Accountability at the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), where he contributed to Oklahoma’s first statewide school report card system. Flory holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and served as a Harvard Agency Fellow from 2019 to 2021, focusing on education policy and data.
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M.S. Accounting, Hendrix College;
Harvard Agency Fellow (2019–2021)
Michael Flory | |
|---|---|
| Born | Conway, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Education | B.S. Accounting, Hendrix College; M.S. Accounting, Hendrix College; Harvard Agency Fellow (2019–2021) |
| Occupations | Education administrator, accountant |
| Employer | Epic Charter Schools |
| Known for | Chief Financial Officer of Epic Charter Schools; Executive Director of Accountability, Oklahoma State Department of Education |
Early life and education
Flory is from Conway, Arkansas. He attended Hendrix College, a private liberal arts college in Conway, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting. From 2019 to 2021, he served as a Harvard Agency Fellow, a program focusing on education policy and data-driven institutional management. Prior to joining Epic Charter Schools, he worked at the University of Central Arkansas as an Accounting and Extended Study Coordinator and Database Manager from 2008 to 2012.
Oklahoma State Department of Education
Flory served as Executive Director of Accountability at the Oklahoma State Department of Education in 2012. In this role he contributed to the development of Oklahoma’s statewide public school report card system, published at oklaschools.com. The report card was developed in compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and Oklahoma statute §70-1210.545, which requires schools to receive annual A–F letter grades based on multiple performance measures including academic achievement, graduation rates, and chronic absenteeism.[1]
Epic Charter Schools
Epic Charter Schools was founded in 2011 by David Chaney and Ben Harris. It is authorized by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board and serves students across all 77 Oklahoma counties. Enrollment reached over 60,000 students in 2020, making it the largest school district in Oklahoma at that time, before declining to approximately 28,500 students by 2025-26. Chaney and Harris were fired in 2021 and criminally charged in 2022 on counts including racketeering and embezzlement.[2] Flory was not implicated in these proceedings.
Career at Epic
Flory joined Epic Charter Schools in February 2012 and served as Executive Director of Data Analytics and Accountability for over thirteen years. In this role he oversaw the school’s data systems, enrollment tracking, performance reporting, and state accountability compliance. An independent forensic investigation commissioned by the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board noted that Flory’s department maintained an enrollment dashboard provided to Epic leadership showing actual and projected student enrollment figures.[3]
Chief Financial Officer
Flory was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Epic Charter Schools in 2025, following the departure of Deputy Superintendent of Finance Jeanise Wynn in May 2025 and the resignation of Superintendent Bart Banfield in July 2025.[4] The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board opened an investigation into the school’s finances in July 2025.[5]
2025 financial restructuring
Epic Charter Schools faced a financial crisis in the 2024–25 school year. The school had hired staff based on a projected enrollment of approximately 33,000 students; actual enrollment never reached that level, resulting in a significant funding shortfall. Epic laid off 144 employees in October 2024 and 357 additional employees in June 2025, closed Blended Learning Centers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and outsourced certain course offerings. By July 1, 2025, Epic held $755,756 in carryover funds, less than one percent of its $300.5 million general fund.[6]
As CFO, Flory secured board approval for a $30 million line of credit from Regent Bank to cover operations through July 2025. He oversaw development of a fiscal year 2026 budget using zero-based budgeting, projecting $233.9 million in expenses and $254.6 million in revenue — reductions of $75.9 million and $46 million respectively from the prior year. He also introduced real-time budget dashboards and external accounting oversight.[7]
The independent forensic investigation by Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC, released in January 2026, found no evidence of embezzlement during the crisis period. The report attributed the financial shortfall primarily to flawed enrollment projections and insufficient budgetary oversight by prior leadership.[8][9]