A Christian school in Glendale expelled the children of a parent who persistently asked questions about how the private school was spending its tuition money.
Lise Hopson had been asking Joy Christian School in Glendale why she paid tuition when a public charter school, Sequoia Choice, was providing the bulk of the private school's academic courses. Charter schools, like all publicly funded schools, are free…
The Republic published an article about the relationship between Joy Christian School and Sequoia Choice on Oct. 2. Before the article was published, state education officials sent copies of parent complaints and state records about the two schools to the state Attorney General's Office for review…
The day before Hopson was quoted in the Republic article, Hopson picked up her daughters as usual after school. The principal handed a letter to Hopson that stated both Hopson and her husband, James, were not "contributing to the harmonious attitude of the school."
In the letter, Kempf called Hopson's actions disruptive and damaging and said they "may have caused financial losses to the school, as well."
Kempf "terminated" the Hopson children's education at Joy Christian School as of 5 p.m. that day and gave the Hopsons a formal notice that as of 5:30 p.m. that day, they were barred from school and church property. The notice allowed the family to visit the "reasonable radius" of the gravesite of Joanne Wright, the children's grandmother, and access to a building leased by the charter school, as long as the Hopsons did not exit their vehicle or talk to anyone on campus.
Hopson's father, Don Wright, said last week that he had his wife's remains removed from a niche on the Joy property.
Wright said a letter he wrote to the pastor also may have led to the children's dismissal. Wright questioned Joy Christian School's relationship with a public charter school. In the letter, Wright said he "expected a refund" of $12,700 in tuition and threatened to take the issue to state officials…
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SCHOOLS UNDER SCRUTINY FOR FINANCING PRIVATE SCHOOL WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS. The Arizona Republic 02 Oct 2009 http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/10/02/20091002sto-joy1002.html
State officials are raising questions about an arrangement in which a private school in Glendale and a public charter-school operator have teamed up to help finance the private school with taxpayer dollars.
State records obtained by The Arizona Republic show that Sequoia Choice Arizona Distance Learning, a charter-school firm, collected at least $1.9 million in state funds from 2005 through 2008 to teach courses to students of Joy Christian School.
During the same period, Joy was collecting tuition payments from the parents of the same students, many of whom used private-school tuition tax credits to help pay. Tuition ranges from $6,710 to $8,000 this year.
Last month, the partnership between Sequoia and Joy Christian, which is affiliated with Community Church of Joy, a megachurch along Loop 101, caught the attention of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne…
An official with the Attorney General's Office said the office will examine the legality of all aspects of the partnership.
A non-profit tuition organization that provides most of Joy's scholarship money said it will stop providing the tax-credit funds if Joy does not dramatically reduce the number of Sequoia-provided courses.
In 2008, Sequoia taught nearly 60 percent of Joy Christian's courses. Sequoia said that the arrangement started when it was asked to help the students and that Joy does not pay it to provide the classes…
The partnership is another indication of how the state's private-school tuition tax credit has been used in ways not originally intended.
The tax credit gives taxpayers a dollar-for-dollar reduction of their state income tax for donating to private-school tuition scholarship. The money is collected and distributed by non-profit school-tuition organizations.
A series of Republic stories has revealed that the tax-credit law, which is scarcely enforced, has given rise to creative ways to tap state funds. For example, some charter schools, which are privately owned but state-funded, obtained tax-credit money by designating the afternoon half of their all-day kindergarten as a private service…
The partnership between Joy Christian and Sequoia began in the 2004-05 school year when Sequoia began providing Joy a few courses that the private school couldn't afford, such as a high-end math course and a language course, said Ron Neil, manager of Sequoia…
By 2008-09, Neil said, Sequoia attorneys warned the charter school that religion had become too prominent in Sequoia's classrooms at Joy; classroom prayer and crosses displayed in class could raise issues related to separation of church and state, Neil said…
Last school year, state officials began receiving complaints from a few parents who didn't like that they were paying tuition at Joy Christian when most courses were provided by a public charter school.
"When I started to piece things together, what we were paying for really came down to music, PE, art and Bible class," said Joy Christian parent Lise Hopson, who has two children at the school. "It almost feels as if our kids are pretty much at a charter school, with a little bit of biblical emphasis."…
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