Berkeley Charter Academy (attempt)

BERKELEY SCHOOL BOARD REJECTS CHARTER SCHOOL PETITION; November 12, 2010; Daily Californian 

The proposed establishment of a new charter school in Berkeley was unanimously denied by the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education at their meeting Wednesday.

After reviewing the charter petition submitted Sept. 17 by Marcus Garvey Charter Schools, Inc., the board decided to reject the petition of the proposed Berkeley Charter Academy on grounds that it did not meet the required conditions established by law.

"There were some unsettling parts to this charter application," said Bill Huyett, district superintendent. "Probably one of the most unsettling is that it is a copycat of one submitted to (San Jose Unified School District)."

According to district officials, the petition contained signatures by several teachers pledging their intent to work at the proposed charter school - yet a petition submitted to the San Jose Unified School District also by Marcus Garvey contained identical signatures. Huyett said at the Wednesday meeting that in some places of the petition, the San Jose district was mentioned instead of the Berkeley Unified School District.

Nedar Bey, the founder and lead petitioner of the new charter school, was not present at the Wednesday meeting because he said he had expected to be contacted by the board prior to their decision…

Huyett also said at the meeting that the American Indian Model of Education the school would have followed is an "indoctrination program" that forces students to adhere to a certain ideology, which he said is evinced in the agency's commandments… [Read about other American Indian Model charter schools HERE] 

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NEDIR BEY WITHDRAWS OAKLAND CHARTER SCHOOL PETITION; September 9, 2010; The Chauncey Bailey Project 

OAKLAND — Nedir Bey, a “spiritually adopted” son of Your Black Muslim Bakery founder Yusuf Bey, has withdrawn a request to open a public charter school in West Oakland.

Bey, who owes the city of Oakland more than $1.5 million, recently had asked the school board to allow him to open a publicly funded, independently run middle school named Marcus Garvey Public Charter School, on San Pablo Avenue near 27th Street.

Bey withdrew his request last week in a one-sentence letter without an explanation.

As reported in the Tribune, Bey launched a failed health care company with more than $1.5 million of city money that he never repaid. Natalie Bayton, listed as a member of the proposed charter school’s board of directors, voted to give Bey the money when she served on the Oakland City Council in 1996.

Two years earlier, Bey was charged with abducting and torturing a man who ran afoul of the bakery in 1994. He pleaded no contest to a felony charge of false imprisonment.

Bey also received public financing for his failed 2002 run for City Council. An investigation into campaign finance fraud languished for five years at the state Fair Political Practices Commission before it was dropped because too much time had elapsed…

Bey’s first name is spelled “Nedar” throughout the charter school petition and is signed as such on his one-sentence withdrawal letter. He also used his birth name, Victor Foster, on the articles of incorporation for the charter school…