Submission declined on 12 May 2026 by Devonian Wombat (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that: provide significant coverage: discuss the person in detail, not brief mentions or interviews lacking independent analysis; are reliable: from reputable outlets with editorial oversight; are independent: not connected to the person, such as interviews, press releases, the subject's own website, or sponsored content. Please add references that meet all three of these criteria. If none exist, the subject is not yet suitable for Wikipedia. This draft is not written from a neutral point of view. Wikipedia articles must be written neutrally in a formal, impersonal, and dispassionate way. They should not read like a blog post, advertisement, or fan page. Rewrite the draft to remove: promotional language: see Words to watch; personal commentary: opinions or direct addresses to the reader; informal language. Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. If you would like to continue working on the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. If you have not resolved the issues listed above, your draft will be declined again and potentially deleted. If you need extra help, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. Please do not remove reviewer comments or this notice until the submission is accepted. Where to get help If you need help editing or submitting your draft, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. These venues are only for help with editing and the submission process, not to get reviews. If you need feedback on your draft, or if the review is taking a lot of time, you can try asking for help on the talk page of a relevant WikiProject. Some WikiProjects are more active than others so a speedy reply is not guaranteed. How to improve a draft Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a basic overview on how to edit Wikipedia. Help:Wikitext – how to use the markup Help:Referencing for beginners – how to include references Wikipedia:Article development – how to develop your article Wikipedia:Writing better articles – how to improve your article Wikipedia:Verifiability – make sure your article includes reliable third-party sources You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Add tags to your draft Editor resources Easy tools: Citation bot (help) | Advanced: Fix bare URLs Declined by Devonian Wombat 2 months ago. Last edited by Colorado001 6 days ago. Reviewer: Inform author. Resubmit Please note that if the issues are not fixed, the draft will be declined again.

Submission declined. notability The reviewer(s) who declined this submission will be listed in the page history.

‘’‘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.

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.

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 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.

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]

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]

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]

- Oklahoma School Report Cards - Epic Charter Schools - Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board – Forensic Investigation Report

Category:Living people Category:American educators Category:People from Conway, Arkansas Category:Hendrix College alumni Category:Education finance