CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Triad Math and Science Academy

2012-01-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

“Questions loom about group proposing Raleigh charter school.” Independent Weekly (NC), 1/25/2012,

An accomplished charter school in Greensboro is eyeing the former Exploris Middle School in Raleigh for a new campus that could open this fall. But parents have raised questions about the quality of some of its teachers, many of whom are from Turkey. Those Turkish ties have also led to speculation that Triad Math and Science Academy (TMSA) could be part of a larger network of schools affiliated with the Islamic Gülen movement, an allegation that school officials and supporters vehemently deny...

But parents and former employees have concerns they hope state decision makers and the school will address before the charter is approved. They include the school's use of international teachers and staff visiting on visas, some of whom lack the English skills to adequately teach their classes; and classroom management, particularly for some international faculty. And then there's what a former TMSA employee called the "elephant in the corner."

Several times since TMSA opened in 2008, parents and former employees have speculated that TMSA is linked to Fethullah Gülen, a controversial Islamic preacher whom religious scholars regard as promoting a moderate form of Islam...

Charter schools suspected of Gülen ties are cookie-cutter K–12 academies focused on math, science and engineering, founded by highly educated Turkish scientists and businessmen. Many of the founders have advanced degrees but often limited experience in education. In addition to being founded by Turkish nationals, the schools often spend thousands of dollars to sponsor H1B visas for international faculty and staff, mostly from Turkey.

TMSA fits the model. The board that founded the school in 2008 had five members, three from Turkey, according to their résumés. A fourth board member had a Turkish spouse, and was also the lone member of the board who had a background in education. The board now has seven members, the majority of them from Turkey, according to their résumés...

TMSA also has eight international teachers on visas, including five from Turkey. All together, TMSA has 10 Turkish or Turkish-American employees, of 57 total, including the principal and assistant principal. Since it opened, TMSA has sponsored 17 visas for teachers, at a cumulative cost of $25,500, Orak said. For the past two years, the school has had an annual operating budget of about $4 million, he said...

State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, toured TMSA last week, and questioned Orak about the availability of local teachers. Since 2008, more than 2,100 public school teachers have been laid off and the state has eliminated more than 6,100 teaching jobs, including 187 in Guilford County.

"I have a neighbor whose wife is going to China to teach physics," Harrison said after the tour. "It seemed odd to me that you wouldn't be able to hire a qualified teacher to teach math and science when we have qualified math and science teachers here going abroad because they can't find a job."

Many international teachers who have arrived at TMSA have such poor English skills that they can't do their jobs effectively, parents said...

But despite the concerns of some community members, TMSA's administration has never held a meeting with parents or teachers to openly address the concerns, Orak said...

Even if the allegations are untrue, the school—at the very least—is facing a major public relations problem. [Joel] Medley, the state director of charter schools, said he visited the school last week and asked again about the issue. "I just asked if they were going to respond to the allegations," Medley said. "It's out there." School officials need to be more proactive in addressing it, he said.

K12, Inc.

2012-01-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

“Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Announces Investigation of K12, Inc.” Press Release: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, 12/16/2011

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at K12, Inc. (“K12” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LRN - News).

The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that: (1) according to various academic benchmarks, K12 students were chronically underperforming their peers at traditional schools; (2) K12 has aggressively recruited students to their schools, regardless of how well-suited they might be for the Company’s curriculum; (3) as a result of K12’s haphazard recruiting process, the Company experiences student retention problems resulting in high rates of withdrawal; (4) K12 schools often have far larger student-to-teacher ratios than the Company advertises; and (5) K12 teachers have been pressured to allow students to pass regardless of academic performance, in order to receive federal funds.

On December 12, 2011, after several months of research, the New York Times published an article entitled “Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools.” The article raised serious concerns about K12’s business practices, alleging that Company schools inflate their student rosters, are underperforming academically, have detrimental student-to-teacher ratios and gain wrongful access to public funds. On this devastating news, K12 shares collapsed almost 24%, closing at $22 per share on December 13.

Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/LRN

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“Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools.” New York Times, 12/12/2011

By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing.

Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.

By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.

Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-profit companies also run online public elementary and high schools, enrolling a large chunk of the more than 200,000 full-time cyberpupils in the United States...

Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million...

The New York Times has spent several months examining this idea, focusing on K12 Inc. A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed.

Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.

Current and former staff members of K12 Inc. schools say problems begin with intense recruitment efforts that fail to filter out students who are not suited for the program, which requires strong parental commitment and self-motivated students. Online schools typically are characterized by high rates of withdrawal...

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K12, Inc. / LRN stock price trends @ http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/LRN

Harmony charter school network (TX)

2012-01-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

“Harmony schools causing discord.” San Antonio Express-News (TX), 1/4/2012

The 36 schools that make up the Harmony charter school network are among the highest-rated in Texas.

But despite its glowing academic record, Harmony has received a flurry of criticism for its business practices.

In particular, the charter network's reliance on visas for Turkish-born staff and use of Turkish-owned businesses for construction and other contracts has raised questions about how it spends taxpayer money and whether it is too insular...

Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of Turkish-American-led charter networks in the United States, more than 120 in 25 states, that they say are tied to Islamic political leader Fethullah Gulen...

From 2008 to 2010, the Labor Department certified 1,197 H-1B visa requests from the Cosmos Foundation — more than double the number of visas certified nationwide for Texas-based computer company Dell USA and about 70 percent as many as were certified for tech giant Apple Inc...

Harmony has about 290 employees working on H-1B visas, or 16 percent of its workforce, according to Superintendent Soner Tarim. Most are Turkish, said Tarim, who is also from Turkey...

“Staffing Northside schools has never really been a problem,” said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Bexar County's largest school district with 97,000 students, where Labor Department records show no H-1B visa certifications in recent years. “In the past there have been thousands of people applying for hundreds of jobs.”...

At Harmony, Tarim said the charter network finds a shortage of qualified teachers in math, science and English as a second language sometimes prompts them to hire foreign workers...

Nearly a third of the H-1B certifications received by Cosmos actually were for jobs outside those fields, however.

Labor Department data includes visa certifications for legal counsel, accountants, assistant principals, public relations coordinators and teachers of art, English and history...

Some students say they have trouble understanding foreign-born teachers...

Tarim bristled at the implication that the charter network was giving much of its work to a closed circle of Turkish-owned businesses...

But in recent years, eight of the charter network's 10 largest contracts have gone to just two companies, both of which have close ties to Cosmos: the Houston-based contracting firms Solidarity Contracting and TDM Contracting.

Solidarity is run by a former Harmony school business manager, according to a report by the New York Times. TDM was formed a couple of years ago by a former Solidarity employee...

Together, the two young companies have received more than $66 million in Cosmos contracts since 2009, records show. The total doesn't include cost overruns or smaller jobs they might have been awarded...

In response to an open records request, Cosmos provided no criteria used to rank the five firms or information about how such criteria was weighted, saying simply that the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder...

Some of Harmony's harshest critics point to somewhat opaque connections between the charter operator and Gulen, a charismatic religious leader from Turkey who espouses religious tolerance and a moderate brand of Islam from his self-imposed Pennsylvania exile.

Tarim laughed a little when asked about the relationship between Harmony and Gulen, which he said is nonexistent...

The Cosmos Foundation also provides management services to other charter networks.

Tarim said Cosmos consults with the School of Science and Technology, a small San Antonio-based charter network run by a nonprofit called the Riverwalk Education Foundation...

Though Cosmos and Riverwalk have separate boards, others referenced a closer tie between the two organizations, referring to their campuses as “sister” schools...

... the TEA has spent the past several months conducting an audit of roughly $540,000 in “inadequately documented” federal grant funds received by the Cosmos Foundation, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.

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More information:

Florida charter schools (investigator observations)

2012-01-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

“Experiences As A Police Officer With The Ugly Side Of Charter Schools And Their Management Companies.” Florida Public Employees Partnership, 12/15/2011

With such a strong push for continued expansion in Florida, I am compelled to share my experiences as a police officer with the ugly side of Charter Schools and their management companies. As a former investigator and supervisor of a public corruption unit, several years ago my unit was responsible for a series of criminal investigations involving personnel, owners, and partners of Charter Schools. Where as some of these investigations resulted in schools being shut down and arrests others culminated in utter frustration resulting from criminals getting away with fraud. A fact made possible by industry wide practices that benefit from weak laws and the impossibility of effective industry oversight.

During the course of these investigations members of my unit worked with a host of local, state, and federal investigators. One of which became the target of a multi-state Federal Bureau of Investigations criminal investigation. Where as, I do not claim to be an expert in the business of running Charter Schools my investigative experience provided a good insight into the big businesses of collecting Tax Dollars for educating public school children. It is from this insight that I share the following:

In everyone of our investigative cases, the schools were set up as nonprofit organizations. Most hired management companies to oversee the day to day operation of the schools. They all had a Board of Directors, had applied for and granted a Charter to be a school from local school districts as governed by Florida State Statute 1002.33 http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/. Their main source of revenue was per pupil funding – called Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Some received more funding based on student disabilities. In every case the drive to recruit more students was the primary focus of the schools and management companies. Most schools had received additional funding from available grants and all claimed Tax Exemptions as nonprofit organizations.

In just about every case the founders of the Charter Schools had ties to the Board of Directors which authorized the hiring of the management companies to run the schools. Even worse, we discovered the owners of the management companies were either the same as the school founders or were directly connected to them. All of which revealed major conflicts of interests in most of the decisions made on the spending of Tax Dollars and education of students.

Like the Miami Herald’s Charter Schools expose, we confirmed the common practice of management companies charging for the leasing of school site facilities, vehicles, and materials. Items that were either owned by the management company or linked to their owners. A practice that was followed with exorbitant management fees charged for services that often could not be explained, were unjustified, or could have been done by school staff for less. In all, these companies’ rule over all matters of business resulted in the majority of the schools’ money being collected by the management company or vendors of their choice without the benefit of competitive bids.

Internally, school staff like teachers, school administrators, and other staff were generally paid less than their public school counterparts. Staff had no benefit of collective bargaining, union representation and as such were at will employees. Teachers were commonly discovered to be teaching out of field. Interviews revealed there were individuals hired with minimal to no qualifications to teach or perform the job functions of their assignments. The majority of these schools were found to be ill equipped with teaching materials that often were substandard to those in public schools. The lack of common resources available in public school districts was a constant...

Online schools (poor academic performance)

2012-01-10T15:24:00.000-08:00

“Students of Online Schools Are Lagging.” New York Times, 1/6/2012

The number of students in virtual schools run by educational management organizations rose sharply last year, according to a new report being published Friday, and far fewer of them are proving proficient on standardized tests compared with their peers in other privately managed charter schools and in traditional public schools.

About 116,000 students were educated in 93 virtual schools — those where instruction is entirely or mainly provided over the Internet — run by private management companies in the 2010-11 school year, up 43 percent from the previous year, according to the report being published by the National Education Policy Center, a research center at the University of Colorado. About 27 percent of these schools achieved “adequate yearly progress,” the key federal standard set forth under the No Child Left Behind act to measure academic progress. By comparison, nearly 52 percent of all privately managed brick-and-mortar schools reached that goal, a figure comparable to all public schools nationally.

“There’s a pretty large gap between virtual and brick-and-mortar,” said Gary Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at Western Michigan University and a co-author of the study.

“E.M.O.’s” — educational management organizations, a term coined by Wall Street in the 1990s — now operate 35 percent of all charter schools, enrolling 42 percent of all charter school students, according to the report. “Charter schools are publicly funded and they are serving public school students,” Dr. Miron noted. “But they are increasingly privately owned and privately governed.”

Some of the management companies are nonprofit organizations — the largest is the KIPP Foundation, with 28,261 students — while others are for-profit companies (K12 Inc. leads this sector, with 65,396). The report focuses on those that have full-service agreements to run schools, as opposed to vendors that offer ancillary services like curriculum development...

KKK endorses charter schools because they increase segregation

2012-01-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) responds to “Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate but Equal Era in U.S.”, 12/28/2011

The kids in the article below seem to be happy. Parents have been given a choice as to where to send their children and without government interference, many have selected schools with a student population that reflects the race of those children. In addition, many of these schools satisfy the children’s longing to identify with their racial history by incorporating cultural studies relating to their ethnicity. There is nothing wrong with this, yet some think it is terrible. In fact, the majority of people prefer to be around others who are like them. Even those who enjoy international travel and experiencing other cultures still, for the most part, live the rest of their life among those of similar racial background. Why does this make some social engineers so angry? It is only natural. Each race should have the right to determine their own affairs without interference. This is why homogeneous nations are good for world peace. Everyone needs their own space. And parents who choose charter schools for their children based upon this fact are doing so instinctually and its healthy for their families.

Minnesota charter schools (increasing segregation)

2012-01-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

"Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate But Equal Era in U.S.” Bloomberg News, 12/22/2011

At Dugsi Academy, a public school in St. Paul, Minnesota, girls wearing traditional Muslim headscarves and flowing ankle-length skirts study Arabic and Somali. The charter school educates “East African children in the Twin Cities,” its website says. Every student is black.

At Twin Cities German Immersion School, another St. Paul charter, children gather under a map of “Deutschland,” study with interns from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and learn to dance the waltz. Ninety percent of its students are white.

Six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, segregation is growing because of charter schools, privately run public schools that educate 1.8 million U.S. children. While charter-school leaders say programs targeting ethnic groups enrich education, they are isolating low-achievers and damaging diversity, said Myron Orfield, a lawyer and demographer.

“It feels like the Deep South in the days of Jim Crow segregation,” said Orfield, who directs the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Race & Poverty. “When you see an all-white school and an all-black school in the same neighborhood in this day and age, it’s shocking.”

Charter schools are more segregated than traditional public schools, according to a 2010 report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers studied 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 39 metropolitan areas. In particular, higher percentages of charter-school students attend what the report called “racially isolated” schools, where 90 percent or more students are from disadvantaged minority groups...

The atomization of charter schools coincides with growing U.S. diversity. Americans of other races will outnumber whites by 2042, the Census Bureau projects...

Charter schools may specialize in serving a single culture as long as they have open admissions, and there’s no evidence of discrimination, said Russlynn Ali, assistant education secretary for civil rights...

Instead, in the 2009-2010 school year, three quarters of the Minneapolis and St. Paul region’s 127 charter schools were “highly segregated,” according to the University of Minnesota Law School’s race institute. Forty-four percent of schools were 80 percent or more non-white, and 32 percent, mostly white.

“It’s been a great failure that the most segregated schools in Minnesota are charter schools,” said Mindy Greiling, a state representative who lobbied for the charter-school law when she was a member of a suburban school board in the 1980s. “It breaks my heart.”

Segregation is typical nationwide. Seventy percent of black charter-school students across the country attended “racially isolated” schools, twice as many as the share in traditional public schools, according to the report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA...

Harlem Success Academy 3

2012-01-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

“High Teacher Turnover at a Success Network School.”The New York Times SchoolBook, 10/19/2011

More than a third of the staff members at a Harlem charter school run by the Success Charter Network have left the school within the last several months, challenging an organization that prides itself on the training and support it offers its teachers.

The unusually high turnover at Harlem Success Academy 3 and the network-wide issue of teachers quitting mid-year led the founder and chief executive of the Success Charter Network, Eva S. Moskowitz, to express concern in an October newsletter.

“This is not a ‘gig’ ” she wrote, informing staff members that by breaking their commitment to the schools and families midyear, they were acting unethically.

At Harlem Success Academy 3, 22 of the school’s 59 administrators, teachers and classroom aides left between the end of the last school year and the beginning of this one, according to the school’s records. Some took jobs at other schools, some moved to new cities and some said they quit out of frustration with the school’s tightly regulated environment...

Few of the teachers who left Harlem Success Academy 3 would speak about why they quit, and those who did refused to be named, citing fear of retribution or concern that they could lose their new teaching positions.

Morty Ballen, the founder and chief executive of Explore Schools, said he had not intentionally poached Success Academy’s teachers.

One former Harlem Success Academy 3 teacher who quit at the end of last school year said she had left because she felt “micromanaged.”

“You couldn’t teach in the way you wanted to teach,” she said. “If your kids weren’t sitting perfectly, looking straight at the teacher, not saying a single word, then you weren’t doing your job.”...

Riverwood International Charter School

2012-01-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

“Riverwood athletic director resigns.” Reporter Newspapers (GA), 10/6/2011

Another high-profile administrator at Riverwood International Charter School has resigned.

Athletic Director Jeff Holloway, who was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 28 after various allegations were made against him, has resigned as athletic director and teacher at the school. Fulton County Schools executive director of communications Samantha Evans confirmed the resignation Oct. 6.

According to an investigator’s report, the school system investigated parent complaints that Holloway mingled personal funds with school funds...

This is the second resignation since the start of the school year.

School Principal Eddie Echols resigned earlier in September due to an audit report that found financial mismanagement...

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SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A popular Fulton County school principal resigned from his post Friday after school officials said a routine audit found "inappropriate use of financial resources."

Eddie Echols had been principal of Riverwood International Charter High School in Sandy Springs since 2002 and had been with the school since 1993.

According to an internal audit obtained by Channel 2's Mike Petchenik, school officials discovered Echols had used an "unauthorized" American Express card linked to the school to make personal purchases. Auditors wrote that Echols reimbursed the district for some of the purchases, but that they could not verify that all purchases were reimbursed because Echols didn't provide a detailed list of all expenses.

An investigative letter obained by Petchenik said that Echols admitted to school investigators he had used the card to pay for "rehearsal dinner" for his family and that he had purchased tickets for his wife to attend a conference with him.

"But I paid them right back," the letter said Echols told investigators. The letter said Echols "also provided that he had encountered financial difficulty, which is inferred as a possible reason for use of the credit card for personal expenses."

Fulton County School District spokeswoman Samantha Evans told Petchenik there was no evidence Echols stole any money or that he broke the law, but the audit revealed he had misused "several thousand dollars" during the 2008-2009 school year...

Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School

2012-01-10T15:02:00.000-08:00

“Rejected 3 Times, School May Still Open Soon, and With a Grant, Too.” New York Times, 1/8/2012

In the last couple of years, Sharon Akman, a real estate agent, applied to the state of New Jersey three times to open a new charter school in the Highland Park area, to be called Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School.

Each time, she was rejected.

Then on Oct. 6, one week after the state’s most recent rejection, the United States Education Department announced that it had approved a $600,000 grant to finance Ms. Akman’s proposed charter.

It would have taken federal officials just a few phone calls to determine that there were many good reasons for the state to have rejected Ms. Akman’s applications...

Ms. Akman, who declined to comment for this column, writes that the charter school would be located in St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church in New Brunswick, even though the bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, Paul G. Bootkoski, has repeatedly said that the building is not available.

Ms. Akman’s documents list community supporters of the school, including Jun Choi, a former mayor of Edison, and the directors of the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, who have written in e-mails made public that they are not supporters.

The application says there is a need for a Hebrew charter in the Highland Park-Edison-New Brunswick area, even though there are many Jewish private schools close by and, as Ms. Akman has told state reviewers, no community survey has been done.

The application says that the families served by the New Brunswick schools, which are predominantly black and Hispanic, support the Hebrew charter, even though school leaders and the local N.A.A.C.P. chapter do not...

An applicant with a $600,000 pledge in her pocket may be seen in a new light by state officials...

What we do know is that in mid-October Ms. Akman made her fourth try, as 1 of 42 applicants statewide.

And in December, the state made its first cuts, leaving 17 applicants — including Tikun Olam.

Next week state officials are to announce which are approved. If Tikun Olam is successful, the school plans to open in September with 100 students.

Ms. Akman has repeatedly refused to talk to reporters...

Academy of Learning and Academy of Design and Technology

2012-01-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

“Charter school with troubled past wants to open in Norton.” Beacon Journal (OH), 1/8/2012

A charter school is trying to open in Norton and compete with Norton City Schools for its students and state money, even though the district is rated excellent and generally should be off-limits to charter schools opening within its borders.

The school for grades K-4 calls itself the Academy of Learning and first appeared under that name in Doylestown last fall.

The Academy of Learning appears to have enrolled about a dozen children whose parents withdrew them from the excellent-rated Chippewa school district and told district officials the children would be home-schooled...

The Academy of Learning spent much of the past year looking for a new home when its original sponsor, Liberty Local Schools near Youngstown, severed ties last year because of the charter school’s “dysfunctional organizational structure” and failure to maintain financial records required for a state audit...

On Feb. 7, 2011, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost wrote a letter to Obermiyer and Liberty Superintendent Stan Watson informing them that the condition of records the district provided for an audit of the 2009-10 school year were not adequate and the district was now considered “unauditable.” Missing documents included “bank reconciliations for the entire period” and “bank statements for July and August 2010.”...

On May 26, Yost declared Liberty Local Schools to be in fiscal watch...

Meanwhile, Carlile and Obermiyer had already launched a quest to keep the charter school going in some form...

They approached North Central Educational Service Center in Tiffin, southeast of Toledo, in the spring.

In May, the North Central ESC passed resolutions approving the hire of Carlile and Obermiyer and the sponsorship of a new conversion school to be called Just for Kids in Doylestown...

But before formal contracts were presented to the board for approval, Lahoski discovered the problems that Liberty had with the state auditor. He said neither Carlile nor Obermiyer had said anything about the financial situation at Liberty during their many conversations...

“Liberty informed us that it was non-renewing and terminating the two schools’ contracts. So based upon that, we notified all the relevant offices that funding should cease with the end of the fiscal year and that’s what happened, ” said Joni Hoffman, who directs the state office overseeing charter schools. “That’s when it started to get very confusing...

However, the Portage County ESC issued a notice on Sept. 30 that it intended to suspend its sponsorship for “failure to provide learning opportunities in a manner consistent with law” and because the school had enrolled fewer than 25 students and was using an “unauthorized facility.”

The building issue was discovered by the Chippewa Township fire chief when he responded to a squad call at the J.A.S. Building and discovered a school in operation. But the building hadn’t been approved for a school...

The Academy of Learning has never officially changed its name, so as far as Portage County ESC and the state are concerned, it’s still the LEARN school. Its sponsorship is suspended, which means it can receive no state or federal funding. It has no official students...

The Carden School of Tucson

2012-01-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

“2 charter schools struck by thefts.” Arizona Daily Star, 1/1/2012

When charter school director Bette Jeppson sat down with an accountant last March, she expected to get a few tips on how the school could improve its bookkeeping and finances.

What she got instead was a litany of illegal transactions by the school's business manager that drained resources to the point the school was forced to cut back in educational spending, making it one of two Southern Arizona charter schools to come under investigation by the Arizona attorney general for financial improprieties.

For example, Jeppson didn't expect to learn business manager Keri Gall had given herself a 29 percent raise and was making 40 percent more than she herself was.

Or that the manager had used the school's credit cards to buy a $1,000 boxer, designer clothes, manicures, groceries and items used to remodel her home.

Jeppson was even more stunned to learn the manager hadn't been depositing money into teachers' IRAs and even forced one to pay her own health insurance...

Instead, Jeppson found out that morning Gall had been writing checks to herself and fixing the books, plus misusing the credit cards...

Originally charged with one count of fraud and four counts of theft, Gall pleaded guilty to one count of theft. She was also ordered to pay $150,280 in restitution at no less than $500 a month.

Authorities can prove Gall stole $128,000 between Jan. 1, 2007 and March 23, 2011; the K-8 school couldn't afford to dig back to her 2003 starting date...

Gall is not the only charter school employee to end up before a judge in recent months...[SEE entry for The Pima Partnership School]

Harmony Science Academy – Waco

2012-01-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

“Man sentenced in Waco for sex assault of teen.” ABC13 KTRK (TX), 11/21/2011

WACO, TX -- A former Child Protective Services worker and Waco high school teacher has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl he met while they were acting in a play.

The Waco Herald-Tribune reports 32-year-old Clifton Grasham-Reeves, a former English teacher at Harmony Science Academy who regularly performed in Waco Civic Theatre productions, was convicted of four counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact...

Among the school board's options are calling for a new director or principal at New Point, amending the school's charter or even closing the school.

Creative Studies Charter School

2012-01-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

“Accuracy of Charter School Applications Questioned; State denies Creative Studies' founder's bids for charters in Lacey and Voorhees.” LaceyPatch (NJ), 1/4/2012

The state has not yet released a detailed explanation of its decision to dismiss the Creative Studies Charter School proposal, but the veracity of the organization's founder's applications to the state have been called into question.

Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf cited "deficiencies" in denying founder Pamela Brown's applications for charter schools in Lacey Township as well as Voorhees. A review of both applications shows two different residencies listed.

Brown is not a permanent resident of Lacey Township and does not have a child attending Lacey schools, as stated on her application to the state and required by statute...

According to state law, a “qualified founder” of a charter school must be either a teaching staff member or a parent with a child attending a school in the district.

The school district confirmed that Brown’s child is not a student in Lacey, school board President Jack Martenak said. The Voorhees School District confirmed that Brown is a resident of that municipality and her son is a student there...

“I just think it’s rather odd that she submitted an application with two different residencies,” [Martenak] said. “It almost seems fraudulent.”...

General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy

2012-01-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

“Financial woes force West St. Paul's Vessey Leadership Academy to close.” Pioneer Press (MN), 1/3/2012

Students from General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy are hunting for new schools after their 8-year-old charter high school abruptly closed over Christmas break after running out of money.

The mood was glum at the small West St. Paul school Tuesday, what should have been the first day back, as students hugged and said goodbye. It was their last chance to collect belongings before trying to find a new place to attend classes and finish out the school year.

"It sucks," said Mara Jafar of Richfield, who helped her son Cody clean out his locker Tuesday. "It is not exactly an easy transition in the middle of freshman year."...

School officials cited a combination of factors that forced the closure. Leadership and staffing turnover caused enrollment to fall from more than 100 students in 2007 to about 50 this school year...

Vessey had a small niche. It was known for its Junior ROTC program that primarily served students who didn't fit into a traditional school setting because of behavioral or other issues, said Mary Bright, Vessey executive director...

Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School

2012-01-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

“State offers to help investigate Vitalistic charter school; Pennsylvania Department of Education offers Allentown and Bethlehem school officials help examining charter's financial and special education records.” The Morning Call (PA), 12/31/2011

State officials have offered to help the Allentown and Bethlehem Area school districts with their joint investigation of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley.

Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said Friday his staff "received a very supportive call" from the Pennsylvania Department of Education concerning Vitalistic. He said the state has offered to help the districts analyze the charter's financial and special education records...

The districts' investigation stems from a story in The Morning Call on Nov. 27 that examined Vitalistic's finances and its loss of a state license that served as the cornerstone of its chartered mission to provide poor students with intensive mental health therapy.

Using public records and interviews with state and Vitalistic sources, the newspaper found Vitalistic had improperly lent taxpayer money to its nonprofit sister school, had problems documenting students' special education services, and had repeat violations of its licensed mental health program. Vitalistic billed the state for more than $200,000 in services from the preschool and charter school that auditors could not determine if children and their families had received...

The newspaper's investigation found Vitalistic's board of trustees offered little to no oversight of those funds or management decisions. The story showed Vitalistic had problems administering and documenting whether students received services under a welfare department license to provide outpatient partial hospitalization care, according to audits conducted by Magellan Behavioral Health Inc., a Connecticut-based private managed care company that monitors treatment for people on Medicaid with mental health issues...

The state auditor general's office is also investigating Vitalistic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The original story here: “WATCHDOG REPORT: A charter school's troubles emerge; Vitalistic Therapeutic billed state for 'services not rendered' records offer no proof of services to students.” The Morning Call (PA), 11/26/2011

Gulen charter schools in Georgia

2011-12-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL
GA	3	0	1	4

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

===============================================================

SCHOOLS

===============================================================

FULTON SCIENCE ACADEMY MIDDLE SCHOOL (formerly Cosmos Science Academy)
Status	ACTIVE, charter initially approved 5/2001; school opened 8/2002; charter not renewed 11/2011; 5-year term expires 6/30/2012; FSA will reapply. http://alpharetta.patch.com/articles/fulton-science-academy-wants-school-board-to-reconsider-its-charter
Charter Holder	Fulton Science Academy, Inc.
Authorizer	Fulton County School System / Georgia State BOE
Location/District	1675 Hembree Rd., Alpharetta / Fulton County School System
Website	http://fsamiddle.org/
Enrollment	Grades 6-8; 506 students in 2010-2011
Notes	The application for Fulton Science Academy (d.b.a. Cosmos Science Academy) was approved in 2001. Founding board members on 2001 application: Bekir Ozcan, Yucel Altunbasak, Serdar Tunaboylu, Erdogan Dogdu, and Kemal Cem Gur. http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/_documents/schools/charterschools/Fulton%20Science%20Academy.pdf Governing board members on 2006 application: Ayhan Korucu, Cheri Garvin, Sherry Saylam, Mustafa Basgun, Feroz Fatehali, Cevdet Akbay, and Mustafa Kececi. Governing board members on 2011 application: Ayhan Korucu (president), Levent Bulut (vice president), Selma Aktas (secretary, parent member, wife of Florida Anatolian Cultural Center founder Elvan A. Aktas), Mustafa Kececi, and parent members, Maria Beug-Deeb, Angela Lassetter, Edith Wichser.

==================================================================

FULTON SCIENCE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL (FORMERLY T.E.A.C.H. School)
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2006
Charter Holder	Fulton Educational Services
Authorizer	Fulton County School System
Location/District	4100 Old Milton Pkwy, Alpharetta / Fulton County School System
Website	http://fsahigh.org/
Enrollment	Grades 9-12; 233 students in 2010-2011
Notes	T.E.A.C.H. School = Technology Enriched Accelerated Charter High School; renamed FSA High School in 2010

==================================================================

FULTON SUNSHINE ACADEMY (sometimes called Sunshine Fulton Academy)
Status	ACTIVE, opened 2010
Charter Holder	Fulton Sunshine Academy, Inc.
Authorizer	Fulton County School System
Location/District	1335 Northmeadow Pkwy, Suite 100, Roswell / Fulton County School System
Website	http://www.fultonsunshine.org/
Enrollment	Grades K-5; 408 students in 2010-2011
Notes	After two denials (2006, 2008), the third submission of the charter school petition was approved in 4/2009.

==================================================================

OCONEE SCHOOL OF MATH AND SCIENCE
Status	DENIED; this was an attempt in 2008 for school to start in fall 2009 http://onlineathens.com/multimedia/pdfs/080608Oconee_BOE.pdf
Charter Holder	Oconee Science Academy, Inc.
Notes	Letter of intent to submit charter school petition sent by I. Budak Arpinar to Oconee County Schools on 1/23/2008 http://onlineathens.com/multimedia/pdfs/020708_Oconee-Charter.pdf News story here http://onlineathens.com/stories/051908/news_20080519036.shtml Denied by the Oconee County Board of Education for multiple reasons, i.e. planned preferential admissions, use of non-certified teachers, limited foreign language offerings (only Spanish and Turkish), etc. Board meeting w/explanation @ http://ebssp.eboardsolutions.com/sites/oconee/Documents/BOE%20Minutes%202007-2008/BOE%20Min.%2005.05.08.pdf

==================================================================

CHARTER HOLDERS

==================================================================

FULTON SCIENCE ACADEMY MIDDLE SCHOOL, INC. (formerly Cosmos Science Academy, Inc.)
Federal Tax ID	EIN 582512910
Website	None
History	Name Change Amendment from Cosmos Science Academy, Inc. to Fulton Science Academy, Inc. certified by state on 2/15/2002
Individuals involved	Names appearing on 990s from 2002-2009: Ali Ozer, Ayhan Korucu (all years), Baybars Bakay, Cevdet Akbay,Cheri Garvin, Erdogan Dogdu, Feroz Fatehali, Fethi Goktepe, Gerald Baron, Kenan Sener, Levent Bulut, Mustafa Basgun, Mustafa Kececi, P.R. Subramanian, Russell Sumrall, Sabrina Moore, Selim Ozdemir (all years), Sherry Saylam (all years), Steven Greene, Tracy Hansen, Tuncay Kucuktas, and Wendy Murphy.

==================================================================

FULTON EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Federal Tax ID	EIN 202617285
Website	None
History	Received a $230,000 Walton Family Foundation grant in 2006
Individuals involved	Ayhan Korucu, Sherry Anne Saylam, Mustafa Basgun, Tahir Duzyol, Kemal Cem Gur; Names on Form 990s for 2005-2009 are Ahmet Ozarslan, Ali Ozer, Alyson Hancock, Anvi Cokavci, Ayhan Korucu, Cevdet Akbay, Levent Bulut, Lee Friedman, Mohammad Hamki, Mustafa Basgun, Rhonda Allenson, Rodney Brown, Selim Ozdemir, Sherry Saylam

==================================================================

FULTON SUNSHINE ACADEMY, INC.
Federal Tax ID	EIN 205753698
Website	None
Individuals involved	The only available Form 990 (2009) listed these board members Namik Sercan (President), Aladdin Akgul, Levent Bulut, Ayhan Korucu, and Sherry Saylam, w/books in care of Murat Cetin. Names on corporation wiki (accessed 12/2011) are Namik Sercan, CEO; Mert Gokkaya, CFO; Alaaddin Akgul, Secretary; Murat Cetin, Principal

=================================================================

OCONEE SCIENCE ACADEMY, INC.
Federal Tax ID	Not known
Website	Website: www.oconeeacademy.org (no longer active)
History	The Georgia State BOE authorized a $5,000 start-up grant for Oconee Science Academy in Aug. 2008. http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/_documents/StateBoardMinutes/2007-2009/August%202008%20State%20Board%20Minutes.pdf
Individuals involved	Ismailcem Budak Arpinar, Caner Kazanci, Ibrahim Demir, Samir Trabelsi, Namik Sercan, Michelle Garfield Cook; Described as “a group including several University of Georgia instructors.”

==================================================================

SERVICE PROVIDER

==================================================================

GRACE INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH & RESOURCES (AKA GRACE SCHOOLS)
Federal Tax ID	EIN 262674420
Website/Address	http://graceschools.us/, 5755 Northpoint Pkwy, Suite 1, Alpharetta, GA
Services	From the 2010 brochure: “Membership is a contractual agreement where a candidate school Governing Board adopts the Grace Institute standards and pays a per-pupil fee to partake in the Institute’s activities and to benefit from membership services.” Services listed: “Professional development workshops for new administrator and faculty; Standards based teaching, assessment, and evaluation support; Budget development support; Marketing, recruitment, and enrollment support; Curriculum development research and support; Accreditation standards support; Operations support.”
Individuals involved	Board members on 990s for 2007, 2008, 2009: Ali Ozer, Kenar Sener, Namik Sercan, Selim Ozdemir, and Yucel Aktas; w/books in care of Avni Cokavci and Ilbey Budak
Notes	All member schools are in the Gulen movement-identified charter school network. Previously appearing on website: “Current members include these two original schools [FSA Middle and High] as well as (in order of their opening years) Stars Middle School, River City Science Academy Middle and High School, Orlando Science Middle and High School, Sweetwater Branch Academy Middle and High School, New Springs Middle School, Fulton Sunshine Academy Elementary School, River City Science Academy Elementary School, and Sweetwater Branch Academy Elementary School.”

=====================================================================

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

See these entries by C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S.

Fulton Science Academy / TEACH / Fulton Sunshine Academy: Evidence of affiliation with Gulen Movement http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy.html
Board Member of Fulton Science Academy and proposed Cape Fear STEM School: "Yes, I am a Fethullah follower" http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy-cape-fear-board-member-yes-i-am-a-fethullah-follower.html
Fulton Science Academy students attended program at overtly Gulenist, religious school in Turkey http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-students-at-gulenist-religious-school-in-turkey.html
Fulton Science Academy - letter from parent http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy---letter-from-parent.html
Fulton Science Academy: Comparing college prep with district http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy-comparing-college-prep-with-district.html
Fulton Science Academy: Charter Renewal 2011 http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy-charter-renewal-2011.html

####

Prime Prep Academy

2011-11-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

“Former football player’s charter school raised questions.” Austin American-Statesman, 11/4/2011

Last month, the state Board of Education granted its approval for two charter schools affiliated with former professional football and baseball star Deion Sanders to open next fall, in Fort Worth and Dallas. A review of recently released public records shows that early versions of the charter’s application contained two business arrangements that appeared to be designed to give school executives opportunities to personally profit off the school.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency said the suspect deals have since been removed from Prime Prep Academy’s application, after state officials investigated and confronted the school’s executives. Prime Prep’s executive director, Damien L. Wallace, confirmed that the specific contract deals had been excised from the charter’s application.

TEA, the agency that vets new charter schools, says it has beefed up its scrutiny of applicants in recent years. Several of the publicly funded schools have been revealed to be paying executives generous salaries, often through not-exactly-arm’s-length deals with side companies controlled by school officials...

Although Sanders’ name does not appear as an official executive for the school, his name does show up in the application, with his fame promoted as a benefit to the new school. “Deion Sanders’ powerful media presence has been utilized to bring more attention to the plans of bringing a charter school of this type to the DFW area,” the school’s application states.

In newspaper accounts, Sanders said he began thinking about founding a charter school approximately three years ago. Wallace said Sanders has been a personal friend and business associate for many years...

The charter school’s application also contained a “sales/marketing” agreement with a company called PrimeTimePlayer. Primetimeplayer.com’s website promises students help with mentoring and recruiting, and features Sanders’ photo. Incorporation documents filed with the Texas Secretary of State’s office list the company’s managing members as Damien L. Wallace and Chazma Jones — both of whom are also listed as executives for Prime Prep Academy.

The marketing agreement called for PrimeTimePlayer to be paid either $1,000 or $7,500 a month (the contract’s wording is unclear) for its services, as well as a percentage of any money it raised for the school; a 5 percent commission on all “special fundraising events” and a 10 percent commission on “all monies derived from corporate, local business and private donor sponsorships.”

According to the January application, the charter had already lined up commitments for about $200,000 in such donations, including $50,000 from Wal-Mart, $25,000 from Bank of America, and $50,000 from the NFL Network, a channel operated by the National Football League.

The school’s application also stated that Prime Prep’s Fort Worth school would be entering into a lease/purchase agreement for the building the school will occupy. The contract included in the charter’s application called for Prime Prep to pay $5,000 a month the first year, $7,000 the second, and $9,500 a month the third year of its occupancy to a company called Pinnacle Commercial Property Group.

Secretary of State records show the company’s directors as of May 2011 to be Damien Wallace and Chazma Jones.

Ratcliffe said TEA’s review staff also noticed the same contracts in Prime Prep’s application and brought them to the attention of the school’s lawyer. “Our lawyer went to their lawyer and said, ‘We have a problem with them doing business with themselves,’” she recalled, adding: “They didn’t initially reveal all the connections there.”...

There is another claim that has raised questions about the finances of the school. In July 2010, seven plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County District Court, claiming Wallace and Sanders had promised to market high school athletes to college athletic departments, but never delivered.

In the same lawsuit, the plaintiffs, led by Lawrence Smith, assert that Wallace and Sanders “made fraudulent and deceptive misrepresentations to induce Mr. Smith into investing money in a Charter School venture.”

According to the lawsuit, Wallace told Smith and others that if they invested $25,000 in the school, a “revenue sharing agreement” would pay them back $174,600, based on rent collected on a building at 4400 Panola Ave., Fort Worth — the same building in which Prime Prep’s Forth Worth campus is to be located, according to the school’s application.

A lawyer representing Wallace and Sanders declined to comment on the case; Smith’s lawyer, Don Stewart, said in court filings the defendants had denied his client’s allegations and were contesting the claims.

Ratcliffe said Prime Prep most likely will receive its final approval from the Texas Education Agency in a couple of weeks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Deion Sanders’ new charterschool drawing questions about financial, academic plans.” The Texas Independent, 11/16/2011

...While the board gave its go-ahead in September, SBOE member Michael Soto (D-San Antonio) wasn’t impressed by what he saw in Sanders’ presentation. “I have no idea what the applicant plans to do in the classroom,” Soto said before the vote, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Since then, other questions have arisen about some of the school’s financial arrangements — deals that would help its top officials profit from the school’s fundraising and property rental...

The conflicts of interest were uncovered by TEA only after the SBOE approved Prime Prep’s charter, but Soto is concerned by the school’s “incredibly vague” academic plans, and told the Texas Independent he’s been getting concerned calls about the school.

Soto said he was unfamiliar, though, with another possible concern: that where Prime Prep’s plans do get specific about academics, the language is nearly identical to wording developed by some other schools.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“The Strange Tale of Deion Sanders' Charter School; Coming soon in North Texas, a charter school built on star power.” The Texas Observer, 12/5/2011

The State Board of Education approved eight new charter schools back in September, but only one of them came backed by the star power of Prime Prep Academy, with an emotional presentation by former Dallas Cowboys great Deion Sanders...

The most novel aspect of these charters, though, may be the private funding sources they'll depend on to round out their $10 million-a-year budget: not usual suspects like Bill and Melinda Gates or the Walton Family Foundation, but big brands Sanders has endorsed or worked with over the years, which he name-drops regularly when talking about the school.

Sanders says Prime Prep is a natural extension of TRUTH, a sports-and-study program he's run for the last few years, that has received money from many of these sponsors already. The school's leadership team told the state it had secured pledges from a few of those companies already, but when contacted, many said they hadn't, in fact, pledged money to the school—at least not yet...

What Prime Prep's leaders stress is unique about its plans are its emphasis on sports along with academics, its dedication to serving inner-city kids in low-scoring school districts, and, of course, the big money that Deion Sanders' friends at big brands will throw at the school...

The SBOE approved Prime Prep's application 8-4.

"We met with Direct TV, with Van Heusen, we met with Procter & Gamble, we met Under Armor, we met with the NFL on assisting us with in endeavors and they did a cartwheel," said Sanders.

In its charter application Prime Prep also listed $186,000 in donations that had already been pledged “upon approval of the charter school," including a pair from Walmart and the NFL Network worth $50,000 each.

But as enthusiastic as Sanders said they all were, most of the companies on the list told me this week that they never did pledge money to the school. The other three either didn't return calls or didn't have an answer ready...

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe says Prime Prep’s list of pledges doesn't matter much to their application. “Even if a charter applicant says they have pledges for land or services from various corporations or entities, we don’t let them count that as revenue unless they have a signed letter from the donor.”

But while the SBOE grilled other applicants about where they'd be getting startup cash or grants to augment state funding, Prime Prep seems to be running entirely on star power. The only signed agreements in its application at first—a $1,000 loan from a Fort Worth real estate firm and a fundraising agreement with a group called PrimeTimePlayer—were dropped because Wallace and other school officials were aslo in leadership roles at the companies that stood to profit, as the Austin American-Statesman reported last month...

The Pima Partnership School

2011-11-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

“Former Tucson school principal given probation in theft case.” Arizona Daily Star, 10/13/2011

A former charter school principal was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay nearly $23,000 in restitution for attempted theft Thursday.

William Eddings Jr. was the principal at a charter school operated by the Pima Prevention Partnership when discrepancies were discovered during an audit by the Arizona Department of Education, according to court records.

The audit and subsequent investigation revealed that between June 16, 2006, and March 15, 2008, Eddings submitted inflated attendance records, awarded diplomas to 13 students who didn’t meet the state’s graduation requirements and signed invoices for services not provided to the school. Eddings received bonuses of $5,000 based on the information he provided.

Eddings was indicted in April on two counts of fraud and one count of theft; he pleaded guilty to attempted theft in August.

Under the terms of his plea agreement, Eddings could have received up to three years and nine months in prison.

On Thursday, Assistant Arizona Attorney General Michael Jette told Judge Howard Fell of Pima County Superior Court he is concerned Eddings has not accepted responsibility for his actions.

Eddings told a probation officer he didn’t do anything wrong and only pleaded guilty to end his legal problems.

In addition to the probationary sentence, Eddings was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

Eddings, who lives in Arizona City, hopes to have his probation transferred to Pinal County.

Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School

2011-11-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

“Tribal school test scores invalidated.” Warren Record (NC), 8/17/2011

As a result of an investigation into testing irregularities in the 2010-11 academic year at Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School, a public charter school, biology test scores for nine students have been invalidated.

The school board for the tribal school, which has been investigating the matter, held a special meeting earlier this month during which they voted to place Principal Chenoa Davis on a three-month probationary period and directed her to terminate the contract of Assistant Principal Thomas Buchanan in response to reports of testing irregularities...

The report states that during the 2009-10 school year, a teacher downloaded from a computer end-of-course test review questions and pasted them into topic groups for use during test preparation for that year.

According to the report, the teacher did not collect the review materials afterward, and a student kept a copy and shared it with others in the 2010-11 school year. A copy was also shared with a student at Rocky Mount Preparatory School, another charter school...

"DPI determined that (the study questions) were secure items," she said. "Once they were discovered, we had to backtrack and found that they came from Haliwa-Saponi (Tribal School)."

The Rev. Ronald Richardson, tribal chief, said that the tribe should work out its own problems without newspaper publicity...

KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy

2011-11-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

“Charter school football coach fired for sex comments, DPS says.” FOX31 (CO), 10/11/2011

DENVER – An assistant football coach at KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy has been fired after being accused of making an online sexual advance toward a student, FOX31 News has learned.

The coach, whose name has not been released, allegedly made the remarks on a student’s Facebook page.

A Denver Public Schools spokesperson says the coach is a part-time employee of the charter school and not a DPS employee.

Fairview Charter School

2011-11-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

“Former Lutz principal removed from new Wisconsin job.” Tampa Tribune (FL), 10/15/2011

TAMPA -- Milwaukee school officials have removed a new principal from her job as they investigate reports from Lutz about the financial collapse of the private school she operated here.

Wendy Alexander was removed from her job Friday as principal of Fairview Charter School, where she supervised about 75 teachers and staff in a kindergarten-through-eighth grade program with more than 600 students.

Alexander founded and operated the Hand in Hand Academy in Lutz, shut down last month just four weeks into the new semester after seven years in business.

Some parents at Hand in Hand said they made payments to Alexander as late as mid-July without knowing she had just lost her bid for bankruptcy protection to stave off foreclosure of the school. Debts had grown to more than $2 million...

Alexander was interviewing for the Milwaukee Public Schools job as far back as April and was hired in May.

The school district there learned in September about Alexander's "personal business issues in Florida," according to a statement from Roseann St. Aubin, district spokeswoman.

"Since that time," the statement said, "we have been engaged in an ongoing review of the matter."

A former Florida employee of Alexander's brought the matter to the district's attention...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Tuition payments gone as Lutz school shuts down.” Tampa Bay Online (FL), 10/11/2011

LUTZ -- Parents were blindsided when the Hand in Hand Academy announced in an e-mail that it was shutting down Sept. 16, seven years after it first went into business and four weeks after opening for the new semester.

Some say they paid registration and tuition as late as mid-July under pressure from Principal Wendy Alexander, even after Alexander lost her bid for bankruptcy protection to stave off foreclosure.

"She was telling us one thing and turning around and it was totally something totally different," said Michael Hanke, a financial planner, who says he wouldn't have enrolled his child if he'd known about money problems. "She made you want to trust her."...
[Sherman Brod, her foreclosure lawyer] said Alexander never saw the collapse coming until the bitter end.

But records show she accepted her new job before July 8, when Hand In Hand Academy defaulted in the corporate bankruptcy case.

Bankruptcy records show that Lisa Astl, an office worker and part-time teacher at Hand In Hand, signed the check that helped trigger the bankruptcy default.

"I only wrote the check in good faith," said Astl. "I didn't think it would bounce."...

Alexander and Astl were arrested together in 2009 and charged with resisting arrest.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Felony DUI is embarrassing but not a disqualifier.” St. Petersburg Times (FL), 12/13/2009

PORT RICHEY — A Pasco County sheriff's sergeant was patrolling U.S. 19 at 1:30 a.m. on a Monday when he clocked two women in a blue Toyota pickup at near 90 mph.

The preschool workers appeared drunk, and they gave deputies each other's last names, the report said. The driver refused the breath test.

Lisa Marie Astl's fourth DUI arrest since 1995 earned a felony designation reserved for repeat offenders.

But as far as the state was concerned, the 38-year-old teacher could keep her job at Hand In Hand Academy in Lutz.

Any discipline would be up to school leaders.

In this case, however, the woman riding shotgun was 41-year-old Wendy Viles Alexander, Astl's boss and Hand In Hand's founder. Deputies charged her with a misdemeanor, giving false information to a law enforcement officer. It was her first arrest, state records show...

Indianapolis charter schools (student dumping)

2011-11-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

“IPS superintendent calls for state investigation into charter schools.” FOX59 (IN), 10/24/2011

Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Eugene G. White called for a state investigation Monday. White called for the state to investigate what he calls an illegal charter schools practice that will cost his district $500,000 in state aid this year.

In a letter to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett, White claims that charter schools are intentionally waiting until after the states average daily membership date to release special needs, homeless and other difficult to place students back to IPS, thereby keeping state aid for the students, while shouldering IPS with the responsibility to educate them...

White said 72 children have come back to IPS because they were homeless and could not be transported to charter schools or the charter school was unequipped to handle their special disabilities or they faced disciplinary expulsion...

White said IPS staff videotaped interviews with returning students and parents about their decisions to leave charter schools and those tapes will be made available to state officials and Mayor Greg Ballard, who sponsors the schools, and Ball State University, which oversees the system.

White said the practice violates state and federal laws and is asking for investigations of 10 charter schools in particular...

Gulen charter schools in Tennessee

2011-11-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL
TN	1	1+	1	4+

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

===============================================================

TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN 2010-2011 = 277 STUDENTS

===============================================================

SCHOOLS

===============================================================

MEMPHIS SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2010
Management	READ Foundation, dba Memphis School of Excellence; partnering w/the Cosmos Foundation (“Texas-based Cosmos Foundation will open Memphis School of Excellence.”) http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/mar/06/new-charter-leaders-savvy-supported/
Authorizer	Memphis City School District
Location/District	4450 S. Mendenhall Road, Memphis / Memphis City School District
Website	http://www.sememphis.org/
Enrollment	Grades 6-9; 2010-11 enrollment = 277
Notes	Ali Gumus, principal

==============================================================

KNOXVILLE CHARTER ACADEMY
Status	PENDING, due to open in 2012
Management	Iris Educational Foundation board of directors is the governing board of Knoxville Charter Academy
Authorizer	Knox County Board of Education
Website	http://knoxcharteracademy.org/
Enrollment	K-8; will enroll up to 600 students
History	The school’s application was initially denied on 11/3/10, but was later approved as long as the operators agreed to set of stipulations demanded by the district. The stipulations appeared to target some of the questionable activities observed at other Gulen charter schools. The school was supposed to open for 2011-12, but in Feb. 2011 the operators announced that there would be a one year delay. http://theknoxvillejournal.tumblr.com/post/2073828572/knox-county-school-board-approves-agreement-for-new

==================================================================

W.E.B. DUBOIS CONSORTIUM SCHOOL CONVERSIONS (nine schools)
Status	2^nd ATTEMPT PENDING: The first application was denied in late October 2011. The charter operator planned to submit his applications again. http://www.memphisflyer.com/CityBeatBlog/archives/2011/10/27/herenton-will-try-try-again&cb=dd2a590ba9a5e3e53229f91ee8eed90a&sort=desc#readerComments
Management	W.E.B. Dubois Consortium of Charter Schools, partnering with the Cosmos Foundation http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/03/herenton-applies-for-charter-schools/
Authorizer	Shelby County Schools/Memphis City Schools (joint school board)
Location / District	The original application was an attempt to operate seven charter schools in Memphis, and two more in the county. The first planned takeovers were of Orleans Elementary, Manassas High and Booker T. Washington schools.

==================================================================

NASHVILLE CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL, RENAMED NASHVILLE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Status	DENIED, all four attempts were rejected
Management	Nashville Academy, Inc.
Authorizer	Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
History	In September 2006, an application was submitted for the Nashville Charter Middle School . It was denied in November, and the school’s appeal to the state board was also denied. In September 2007, the same group applied under a new name, the Nashville Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). That application was also denied. NAST’s third attempt was denied in November 2008. NAST made a fourth attempt which was denied in December 2009.

==================================================================

MANAGEMENT

==================================================================

READ FOUNDATION (dba Memphis School of Excellence)
Federal Tax ID	EIN 943487601
Website	None
History	Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Texas-based Cosmos Foundation will open Memphis School of Excellence.” (3/6/2010) http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/mar/06/new-charter-leaders-savvy-supported/
Individuals involved	Executive Director: Cem Akkus; No Form 990 posted

==================================================================

IRIS EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Federal Tax ID	EIN 271792425
Website	None
History	The foundation's initial address, as listed on the Tennessee Department of State's website, was the same as that of the Knoxville Turkish Cultural Center, AKA Universal Dialogue http://www.universaldialog.org/ displays same website as http://knoxvilleturkish.org/ . http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/dec/10/foundation-drives-new-charter-academy-focuses-math/?partner=RSS
Individuals involved	Board members in application: Suzan Mertyurek (also on the boards of Triad Math and Science Academy in North Carolina, another Gulen charter school, as well as Virginia International University, a Gulen-operated private institution for higher education), Lydia Pulsipher, Rashad Mahmudov, Leyla Achilova (AKA Achilov, Kayumova; taught at Sonoran Science Academy, a Gulen charter school in AZ), Ege Sarisaltik.

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NASHVILLE ACADEMY, INC.
Federal Tax ID	EIN 203991207
Website	None
Individuals involved	“While Dr. Ismail Fidan, NCMS’ sponsor and Governing Board Chair, is a consultant to two charter schools, one in Nevada and another in Fulton County, Georgia, there is little evidence of his direct involvement in educational administration or curriculum and instruction beyond his own evident expertise in his academic field. (A letter from the Fulton County charter school for which he is a consultant cites his service in raising money and recruiting teachers.) Two board members are graduate students in economics; a fourth is an architect. The fifth is an area manager for Taco Bell, with considerable experience in restaurant management.” http://state.tn.us/sbe/Jan07/NCMS/NCMS_Response_to_MNPS_objection.pdf Ismail Fidan “...worked for Fulton Science Academy governing board for two years and also for the Coral Academy of Science in grant writing and fundraising.”* http://state.tn.us/sbe/Jan07/NCMS/NCMS_Response_to_MNPS_objection.pdf *NOTE: Both schools are in the Gulen charter school network.

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W.E.B. DUBOIS CONSORTIUM OF CHARTER SCHOOLS
Federal Tax ID	Unknown
Website	None
History	It is not known how this charter school group and the Cosmos Foundation entered into an arrangement with each other. The situation presents a mutation of the established Gulen charter school pattern.
Individuals involved	Willie Herenton, Tanya Dawson, Veronica Finnie, Vernon Grouse, Regina Haley, Sara Hall, Keith McGee, Ernest Strickland, Brent Taylor. “Next year, Herenton intends to submit two applications for charter schools in suburban Shelby County.”

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PARTNER ORGANIZATION

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COSMOS FOUNDATION / HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Federal Tax ID	EIN 76-0615245
Website	http://www.cosmostx.org/
Services	Cosmos gets 3% of Millennium’s annual state funding because of their “Support Service Agreement.”
Individuals involved	Names appearing on IRS Form 990s (2002 to 2009): Ali Tekin, Bilal Akin, Burhanettin Kuruscu, Cengizhan Keskin, Cocksun Cetinkaya, Ellen A. MacDonald, Fatih Yigit, Gokturk Tunc, Ibrahim Sel, Iker Gure, Ismet S. Isik, Kadir Almus, Kudbettin Aksoy, Levent Bulut, Lynn Mitchell, Mehmet Okumus, Mustafa Atik, Mustafa Guvercin, Mustafa Ozen, Nihat Guvercin, Oner Ulvi Celepicikay, Ozgur Ozer, Selahattin Aydin, Soner Tarim, Tevik Eski, Umit Pecin, Yetkin Yildirim

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Learn more about the Cosmos Foundation / Harmony Public Schools HERE and HERE and HERE.

Gulen charter schools in Oklahoma

2011-11-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL
OK	4	0	0	4

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

===============================================================

TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN 2010-2011 = 1557 STUDENTS

===============================================================

SCHOOLS

===============================================================

DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY-TULSA
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2000
Management	Sky Foundation, in partnership with the Cosmos Foundation
Authorizer	Langston University (in exchange for 5% of the school’s funding). Tulsa Public Schools was the original sponsor but denied DSA’s renewal in 2009.
Location/District	280 South Memorial Drive, Tulsa /Tulsa Public Schools
Website	http://dsatulsa.org/
Enrollment	Grades 6-12; 2010-11 enrollment = 395
Notes	In 2005, TPS ordered the school to stop screening students. http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/223280/charter_school_revises_practice/index.html ; the Tulsa school board unanimously voted to deny renewal in October 2009 (“Citing concerns about services for special education students...” etc.), then gave the school a one year extension; http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20091026_298_0_Citing976068 Principal: Abidin Erez

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DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY-OKC
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2001
Management	Sky Foundation, in partnership with the Cosmos Foundation
Authorizer	Oklahoma City Public Schools
Location/District	919 Northwest 23^rd Street, Oklahoma City / Oklahoma City Public Schools
Website	http://www.dsaokc.org/
Enrollment	Grades 6-12; 2010-11 enrollment = 458
Notes	Principal: Barbaras Aslan; Executive Director: Kaan Camuz

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DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY ELEMENTARY-OKC
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2008
Management	Sky Foundation, in partnership with the Cosmos Foundation
Authorizer	Oklahoma City Public Schools
Location/District	4901 N. Lincoln Boulevard, Oklahoma City / Oklahoma City Public Schools
Website	http://www.dsaelementary.org/
Enrollment	Grade K-5; 2010-11 enrollment = 304
Notes	Principal: Hasan Suzuk; Executive Director: Kaan Camuz

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DISCOVERY SCHOOL OF TULSA
Status	ACTIVE, opened in 2009
Management	Sky Foundation, in partnership with the Cosmos Foundation
Authorizer	Langston University
Location	4821 South 72^nd East Avenue, Tulsa
Website	http://www.discoveryok.org/
Enrollment	Grades K-8; 2010-11 enrollment = 400
Notes	Principal: Fevzi Simsek; Executive Director: Kaan Camuz (2011) http://sde.state.ok.us/Schools/CharterSch/pdf/CharterSchCon.pdf

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MANAGEMENT

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SKY FOUNDATION, INC. dba DOVE SCIENCE ACADEMY
Federal Tax ID	EIN 731578930
Website	None
History	Schools chartered “by Turkish immigrants studying at Oklahoma State University.” (The Oklahoman, 1/1/2006); “...the founders of the school had the vision of creating a place that emphasized math and science...” (NewsOK, 3/28/2011);
Individuals involved	Names appearing on Sky Foundation Form 990s (2002-2009): Birol Furat, Birol Ozturk, A.Y. [Ali Yavuz] Zeybek, Elvan Ceyhan, Fevzi Simsek, Gultekin Kaya, Hakan Yagci, Halil Ibrahim Tas, Hasan Buzuk, Ihsan Kara, Ilhan Guzey, Can Topuz, Kamil Celik, Orhan Kucukosman, Volkan Cicek, Ilker Gure, Yalcin Akyildiz, Zekeriya Yuksel, and Zeynei Gunay.
Notes	Until 2009, the Form 990s listed the address is 4444 N. Classen Blvd., Oklahoma City. Also listed at this address is the Oklahoma City branch of Raindrop Turkish House, a regional Gulenist “cultural” organization.

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PARTNER ORGANIZATION

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COSMOS FOUNDATION / HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Federal Tax ID	EIN 76-0615245
Website	http://www.cosmostx.org/
Services	Cosmos gets 3% of the Sky Foundation’s annual state funding because of their “Support Service Agreement.”
Individuals involved	Names appearing on IRS Form 990s (2002 to 2009): Ali Tekin, Bilal Akin, Burhanettin Kuruscu, Cengizhan Keskin, Cocksun Cetinkaya, Ellen A. MacDonald, Fatih Yigit, Gokturk Tunc, Ibrahim Sel, Iker Gure, Ismet S. Isik, Kadir Almus, Kudbettin Aksoy, Levent Bulut, Lynn Mitchell, Mehmet Okumus, Mustafa Atik, Mustafa Guvercin, Mustafa Ozen, Nihat Guvercin, Oner Ulvi Celepicikay, Ozgur Ozer, Selahattin Aydin, Soner Tarim, Tevik Eski, Umit Pecin, Yetkin Yildirim

=====================================================================

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Learn more about the Cosmos Foundation / Harmony Public Schools HERE and HERE and HERE.
More about the Discovery School of Tulsa HERE. http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/10/discovery-school-of-tulsa.html
More about Dove Science Academy – Tulsa HERE. http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/06/dove-science-academy-tulsa.html

Harmony Science Academy - Houston Northwest

2011-11-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

“Outraged mother says daughter forced to scrub school toilets for tardies.” KHOU 11 News (TX), 10/5/2011

HOUSTON -- Parents of some students at the Harmony Science Academy Charter School in Northwest Harris County say their children were forced to clean restrooms as punishment.

Monica Lane said her daughter, Meagan, a fourth grade student at the school, was punished to Saturday school for getting five tardies. However, Lane said Meagan did not get not extra time in the classroom, but got time in the restroom.

"Yeah it was gross," said Meagan Dunn.

She was not alone, her mother said.

"Kids, as young as second grade, were scrubbing the toilets on Saturday," Lane said. "The baseboards and walls, and the door handles and the floors."

Meagan said the cleaning duties were done using just a disinfectant wipe and no gloves.

Administrators at the Harmony Science Academy issued a statement on the matter saying:

"Never under any circumstances is any student required or expected to clean the restrooms at any of our facilities."

The school said it encourages students to do chores to help them to care for their community. The school admitted that students did clean restrooms, but said it was just an inappropriate joke from a teacher taken literally by some students.

"How would you feel as a parent if your child was made to scrub the toilet without any kind of gloves, without any parent knowledge," Lane asked.

Beside the obvious cleanliness issues, Meagan’s parents wondered about the lost educational opportunity.

“That could have been a time for tutoring or going over some of the class work or something like that," said Lane.

Harmony Science Academy - Lubbock

2011-11-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

“Incident leads LISD officials to have concerns about Harmony.” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX), 8/27/2007

School districts in Lubbock say they're not concerned about a loss of state dollars if students transfer to a new charter school.

Public school systems lose state funds for student attendance when pupils transfer out, according to the Texas Education Agency. Harmony Science Academy-Lubbock opens today with about 250 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Lubbock Independent School District officials said they're concerned about something else: The issue stems from an incident at Hodges Elementary School earlier this year, but Harmony said it did nothing wrong.

Nancy Sharp, a district spokeswoman, said Harmony representatives entered Hodges shortly after school had ended. They started to ask teachers questions about students and demographics and refused to check in at the school office.

Sharp said LISD police and the FBI were notified. She couldn't provide a police report, and an FBI agent declined to deny or confirm the claim. The district also contacted the media about the incident.

"Our interaction [with Harmony] has been puzzling," Sharp said. "Our interaction has not been on the professional level we would expect from educators."

Harmony principal Gultekin Kaya denied the allegation...

East End Community Heritage School

2011-11-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

“A school reform experiment that went on too long.” Cincinnati.com (OH), 10/16/2011

In 2000, the East End Community Heritage School, a charter school, opened with 186 students and a promise to better educate children with Appalachian roots and keep them in school to graduation.

In fact, its contract said 85 percent of students would pass Ohio proficiency tests within three years, a rate to rival top suburban schools...

Three years later, it was in Academic Emergency. Its achievement was so low by 2006 that CPS dropped out as sponsor. By 2010 - with 99 students - it was put on a "watch list" by the state.

Last week, the state named it one of 15 charter schools that must raise its scores or close by 2013.

How could such poor performance go on for so long?

Incredibly, the school may have survived because of its lack of success.

The state says charters must close if they've been in academic emergency for at least two of the three most recent years. But if schools have fewer than 10 students in a grade, the state doesn't include their composite scores on the state report card - or give the school a ranking.

That's what happened to EECHS in 2009 and 2010.

Even though it was in Academic Emergency in 2007 and 2008, the school managed to stay open apparently because it drew so few children, despite more than a decade of poor results...

The most expensive part is that for 11 years taxpayers have poured money into a school that performed worse than the public schools it was created to help "reform." Every other CPS school in Bond Hill, where the school relocated in 2006, has a higher state ranking.

Meanwhile, the school at one point was more than $300,000 in debt, which it has whittled down to $80,000 now...

In 2009, as EECHS hit other milestones of having the lowest percentage of highly qualified teachers in the region and a 10 percent graduation rate, an Ohio Department of Education spokesman assured taxpayers, "We're not going to continue pumping money into failing charters. If we can see the writing on the wall ... (we try) to stop the bleeding and give those students an option of going somewhere else."

But EECHS bled on...

But EECHS's story is not over, and it would be an oversight not to point out that the school - finally - might face its best chance for success.

Former CPS superintendent Michael Brandt, hired by the school's board of directors as a consultant, is overseeing a major overhaul of the curriculum, staff and daily operations at the school and has brought in former Hillcrest Training School Superintendent William Hamilton as principal.

They've replaced more than half the staff, increased the school day to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., introduced a new college-readiness curriculum, and won a $360,000 state improvement grant and $61,000 Race to the Top federal grant for improvement.

The turnaround would be good news, but 11 years overdue...

California charter schools (problems w/oversight)

2011-11-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

"Chief of state’s charter school division stepping down.” EdSource (CA), 10/14/2011 (bolding added)

The California Department of Education is looking for a replacement for the chief of its charter school division, who is leaving her post after 18 months on the job.

The departure of Beth Hunkapiller at the end of October comes at a time of continuing expansion of charter schools in California. At the same time, the state faces considerable pressures regarding oversight of state and federal dollars, especially at start-up charter schools. It is also examining its capacity to oversee 31 charter schools authorized by the State Board of Education between 2000 and 2010...

In 1992, she signed the petition for the first school granted a charter in the state—the San Carlos Learning Center. It was also the first school founded by Aspire, which with 34 schools is now the largest charter school company in the state. Hunkapiller served a stint as the chair of the Aspire board of directors, and was chair of the State Board’s Advisory Commission on Charter Schools. She has also been an elected member of the San Carlos School District board for the past 19 years.

But as the Little Hoover Commission noted in a report last year, there has been significant turnover in the Charter School Division staff, including in its leadership. Since 2004, it has had three directors, including Hunkapiller.

At the last State Board of Education meeting, Richard Zeiger, the Department of Education’s chief deputy superintendent, announced that tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds have been lost by start-up charter schools that either never opened or closed within a year or two of opening. At that meeting, Hunkapiller told the board that oversight procedures, especially of federal grants as high as $575,000 to beginning charter schools, should be stronger.

Hunkapiller said yesterday that now-closed charter schools have defaulted on $5.5 million from the state’s Charter School Revolving Loan Fund, which gives loans of up to $250,000 mainly to start-up charter schools. She said the defaults occurred primarily in the early years of the program, but have increased again ”in the last year or two.”

State law requires charters to pay off their loans over five years, but if a school closes before that time, collecting on the loan has turned out to be exceedingly difficult if not impossible.

Hunkapiller said the Charter School Division also had to go through a rigorous federal audit in August in which federal auditors spent weeks in Sacramento looking at what happened to federal funds granted to charter schools that have closed their doors.

The report is due in January...

LaMensa Academy Next Generation Charter School

2011-11-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

“Palm Beach Gardens charter elementary school struggles to meet 100-student enrollment goal.” Palm Beach Post (FL), 10/9/2011

PALM BEACH GARDENS — Brand-new textbooks sit stacked on desks in the brightly lit classrooms at LaMensa Academy Next Generation Charter School. Most have never been opened. And most of the small blue and red chairs have never been occupied by students.

The new Palm Beach Gardens charter school's enrollment has fallen well below its expected 100 students this fall. As of Wednesday, it had only 13 children registered.

Now LaMensa's founder and administrators are scrambling to boost enrollment by Friday, when the state will do a student count to determine how much money each school or district will receive.

If LaMensa doesn't reach that goal, the school must come up with a plan to avoid being closed.

"We're looking to get to at least 100 in a week," said Pamela Patterson, its principal. "That's a pretty big goal, but that doesn't mean it can't be accomplished."

Enrollment is already up from the first few weeks of school, when LaMensa's student body stood at five. The school urged their parents to talk to people about the K-3 charter and persuade them to enroll their children...

"We're letting people know there's another school, another option out there," Patterson said. " I believe in miracles."

Key West Collegiate School

2011-11-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

“Principal reverses resignation but it's too late.” Florida Keys Keynoter, 10/15/2011

Key West Collegiate School Principal Debra Remsen, who resigned on Oct. 3 after the school's board started questioning her qualifications, now says she hasn't resigned.

But apparently she's out anyway because the board on Wednesday put her on 10-day suspension and is already reviewing applications from two dozen people expressing interest in replacing her...

Early into the first-year school's term, board members began questioning Remsen's qualifications, even having School District Superintendent Jesus Jara come in to talk about the experience and certifications principals must have.

Board Chairwoman Winnie DeMent, whose daughter attends the school, said Remsen requested administrative training, leading the board to find that she is not a state-certified principal...

In addition to her qualifications, Remsen has caught flack for posting on Facebook on Oct. 7 a resignation letter from social studies teacher Mark Peterson in which he was highly critical of the board's management...

There's more amiss at the school than just the administrator position.

A financial update from board member Cali Roberts indicates that Key West Collegiate will end its financial year in 2012 with a $71,000 deficit; the startup funding totals $321,000. And after being in operation for seven weeks, the six teachers are still working without contracts.

"The school is in crisis," DeMent said.

Believe Southside Charter High School

2011-11-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

“Two More Believe Network Charters Are Put on Probation.” New York Times, SchoolBook blog (NY), 9/26/2011

Two Brooklyn charter high schools have been placed on probation by state education officials, putting them on a path that could lead to their being closed.

The two schools, Believe Northside Charter High School and Believe Southside Charter High School, which opened in 2009, are both managed by the Believe High School Network.

A third high school operated by the network, Williamsburg Charter, which opened in 2004, was placed on probation on Sept. 16 by city education officials.

All three schools, which were founded by Edward Calderon-Melendez, the network’s chief executive, have been under investigation by the office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York for several months because of questions about their financial management. They face possible closing if they do not follow the city and state’s recommendations in the next year.

Cliff Chuang, director of the state’s charter school office, sent probation orders to Northside and Southside on Wednesday, charging that trustees at both schools had little knowledge of their own finances and appeared to have surrendered financial and operational control to the Believe network, which has left both schools in debt and almost unable to act independently.

Believe has also kept city education officials in the dark and has not shown them its annual budget for the 2010-11 school year or its projections for 2011-12, according to the probation orders.

According to the state, although the Northside and Southside schools share a city-owned building in Williamsburg and do not pay rent, they are $161,779 and $117,213 in debt, respectively. Yet the probation orders state that when the chairwomen of the schools’ boards of trustees, Candace Cobo of Northside and Marcenia Johnson of Southside, spoke with state officials, both demonstrated an “alarming lack of familiarity” with the fiscal issues facing their schools, including the schools’ current financial conditions.

“Given the negative working capital position of the school, and a networkwide pattern of significant expense-side budget variances, the long-term viability of this school” remains in question, Mr. Chuang wrote in both schools’ probation orders.

A lawyer for the Believe network schools, Sharon McCarthy, said the schools would work to correct their mistakes.

“Everyone is disappointed this has happened, but we are making a concerted effort to work directly with the State Department of Education to address the issues raised in the probation reports,” Ms. McCarthy said. “I think this is fixable, and they’re committed to fixing it.”

Mr. Chuang’s notices charge the schools with overstating their enrollments, saying each billed the city for 300 students. Southside has an enrollment of 246 this year and Northside has 267.

In addition, both schools have violated state law by having fewer than five voting board members, according to the state. The skeletal boards that do exist have met only four times in the last year, and several of their members have conflicts of interest that they have not disclosed, according to the state.

Information on the Believe network’s Web site suggests that its schools’ board members are, in some cases, also network employees. Jonna Caramico, for example, is listed as both a special education consultant to Williamsburg Charter and a board member for Southside.

The probation notices also said both schools were open for 180 days last year, instead of the required 186.

Believe Northside Charter High School

2011-11-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

“Two More Believe Network Charters Are Put on Probation.” New York Times, SchoolBook blog (NY), 9/26/2011

Two Brooklyn charter high schools have been placed on probation by state education officials, putting them on a path that could lead to their being closed.

The two schools, Believe Northside Charter High School and Believe Southside Charter High School, which opened in 2009, are both managed by the Believe High School Network.

A third high school operated by the network, Williamsburg Charter, which opened in 2004, was placed on probation on Sept. 16 by city education officials.

All three schools, which were founded by Edward Calderon-Melendez, the network’s chief executive, have been under investigation by the office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York for several months because of questions about their financial management. They face possible closing if they do not follow the city and state’s recommendations in the next year.

Cliff Chuang, director of the state’s charter school office, sent probation orders to Northside and Southside on Wednesday, charging that trustees at both schools had little knowledge of their own finances and appeared to have surrendered financial and operational control to the Believe network, which has left both schools in debt and almost unable to act independently.

Believe has also kept city education officials in the dark and has not shown them its annual budget for the 2010-11 school year or its projections for 2011-12, according to the probation orders.

According to the state, although the Northside and Southside schools share a city-owned building in Williamsburg and do not pay rent, they are $161,779 and $117,213 in debt, respectively. Yet the probation orders state that when the chairwomen of the schools’ boards of trustees, Candace Cobo of Northside and Marcenia Johnson of Southside, spoke with state officials, both demonstrated an “alarming lack of familiarity” with the fiscal issues facing their schools, including the schools’ current financial conditions.

“Given the negative working capital position of the school, and a networkwide pattern of significant expense-side budget variances, the long-term viability of this school” remains in question, Mr. Chuang wrote in both schools’ probation orders.

A lawyer for the Believe network schools, Sharon McCarthy, said the schools would work to correct their mistakes.

“Everyone is disappointed this has happened, but we are making a concerted effort to work directly with the State Department of Education to address the issues raised in the probation reports,” Ms. McCarthy said. “I think this is fixable, and they’re committed to fixing it.”

Mr. Chuang’s notices charge the schools with overstating their enrollments, saying each billed the city for 300 students. Southside has an enrollment of 246 this year and Northside has 267.

In addition, both schools have violated state law by having fewer than five voting board members, according to the state. The skeletal boards that do exist have met only four times in the last year, and several of their members have conflicts of interest that they have not disclosed, according to the state.

Information on the Believe network’s Web site suggests that its schools’ board members are, in some cases, also network employees. Jonna Caramico, for example, is listed as both a special education consultant to Williamsburg Charter and a board member for Southside.

The probation notices also said both schools were open for 180 days last year, instead of the required 186.

School of Science and Technology Discovery

2011-11-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

“Student Claims She Was Humiliated By Teacher Over Rosary.” KSAT (TX), 10/2/2008

SAN ANTONIO -- An eighth-grader at a northwest side charter school said she was humiliated by one of her teachers over her religious expression.

Kelsey, a 13-year-old at the School of Science and Technology's Discovery campus, said one of her teachers humiliated her in front of her classmates while repeatedly questioning her religious beliefs because she wore a Catholic rosary.

"She told me to take it off, and I told her no," Kelsey said. "So she took me to the principal's office and he took it away from me, and told me to get it at the end of the day."

Kelsey said she continued to wear the rosary to school only to have the unidentified teacher question her religious beliefs.

"She has this teacher who is picking on her (about) something that's none of her business, and no one will speak to me about it or address the situation," said Marleana Ayala, Kelsey's mother.

School officials refused to speak about the situation, but did release a statement to KSAT 12 News.

"Students have no problem exercising freedom of speech and freedom of religion, as long as they follow the general school's rules and do not interfere with the rights of others," the statement read. The statement did not elaborate on the exact school policy when pertaining to religious items.

IDEA Public Schools

2011-11-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

“Leaked IDEA Public Schools emails reveal private conversations.” The Monitor (TX), 5/25/2011

The hallways and teachers’ lounges at IDEA Public Schools have been buzzing with talk of the leaking of dozens of emails from the district account of CEO and Founder Tom Torkelson over the weekend.

IDEA officials confirmed they were investigating who forwarded 44 sensitive emails Saturday morning to local business and education leaders, charter executives from across the state and the charter district’s entire staff.

“Somebody hacked into … private conversations between me and my senior management team that were intended for nobody except for them,” Torkelson said Tuesday. This was “clearly somebody unhappy who wants to personally embarrass me or make our work that we’re doing to reform education in the (Rio Grande) Valley more challenging.”

Most of the emails concerned the distribution of performance-based pay bonuses for teachers, principals and central administrators.

But several exposed — often quite bluntly – the potential, or lack thereof, for teachers to advance into leadership roles, criticism of an administrator from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo schools, IDEA’s preference for Teach for America recruits and hiring formulas and future expansion into San Antonio or Austin...

A frequent volunteer at a Donna campus, [Esmeralda Oliva, a 33-year-old Weslaco mother with six children in IDEA] she has seen many of her favorite teachers let go, replaced with young and inexperienced Teach for America — or TFA — recruits.

That AmeriCorps-like program places recent college graduates into schools across the nation, and in multiple emails, Torkelson and his senior staff committed their organization to shifting IDEA’s hiring strategy in the direction of TFA.

“It’s a pay cut in a sense. They’re getting rid of higher-paid teachers and replacing them,” Oliva said. “These are great teachers, and it’s bothersome they’re getting sent away.

“I’ve seen how these teachers interact with each other, their bosses, students,” she said. “I don’t understand why they’re hiring new teachers.”

Torkelson flatly denied IDEA fired any teacher on salary grounds and said his district would retain a highly paid, 20-year veteran if he or she produced the expected student success results...

However, a TFA alumni himself, he also wrote in emails that IDEA would increase its hiring of TFA members to sustain its regional corps in the face of deep state budget cuts to TFA and other districts who hire the group’s recruits...

In the meantime, Torkelson and [IDEA’s Chief People and Systems Officer Irma Muñoz] said they would enhance email security within IDEA, perhaps adding routine password rotation to avoid future leaks.

And the district will decide what civil recourse, if any, to pursue, while they attempt to find the suspect.

IDEA Alamo

2011-11-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

“Family removes boy from IDEA over response to health needs.” The Monitor (TX), 10/16/2011

No teacher ever suggested Arnold Lopez was a liar when he attended the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district, the 11-year-old said recently.

But at IDEA Public Schools — where students cannot leave class during the first and last 20 minutes of instruction — a substitute doubted the sixth-grader truly “needed” to rush to the restroom on Sept. 8.

“I told her I’m a diabetic. … My kidneys work overtime to lower my (blood sugar) levels,” Arnold said. “She said, ‘Are you making that up?’

“Who would make up something like that? How many kids know about kidneys?” he asked. “I was literally about to just go (when) she walked fast — I heard her heels — and blocked the door with her body.”

Arnold said he never faced such discomfort at PSJA’s Napper Elementary, where every absent teacher left a note specifically explaining his condition to substitutes.

The humiliating incident could have been prevented, mother Marina Lopez said, if campus leaders and staff met with her before his transfer to the charter school’s Alamo campus in August.

“Before day one, IDEA told me they’d do whatever it takes” to accommodate his special needs, she said. “That never happened, (and) we had to pull him out...

South Carolina Virtual Charter School

2011-11-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

“Test Result: No School for Student with Asperger Syndrome.” Education Week, 10/14/2011

At the moment, South Carolina mother Gretchen Herrera isn't worried about whether her son has to take state tests in reading and math this year.

He has to be in school for her to worry about that.

Last week, Ms. Herrera told me about how she doesn't want her son Anthony, 12, to take the tests because his two diagnoses, Asperger syndrome and Type I diabetes, are a somewhat lethal combination. Anthony did well on the one test he did take, but his blood sugar spiked to a dangerous level during the exam. She kept him from most of the testing last spring as a result, unable to get official permission from the school to do so despite a note from a doctor.

Then last weekend, Ms. Herrera staged a petite protest outside the South Carolina state government buildings in Columbia.

When she got home, there was a letter waiting for her. The online charter school her son attends said Anthony is no longer welcome.

The school said because Ms. Herrera signed a contract when she enrolled Anthony, a contract that includes a clause about taking state tests, and violated that contract, her son was being withdrawn from the school, effective immediately.

Ms. Herrera told me she did sign that contract—"except the part about testing," she told me. The school, which didn't make adequate yearly progress as measured by No Child Left Behind, hasn't called me back to explain more about its decision. The immediate question: Why unenroll Anthony now, and not months ago when he didn't take the state tests?

As Ms. Herrera researches schools that she believes would be a good fit for Anthony, he has been sitting at home, his access to the online charter school cut off...

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