Brighter Choice Foundation

“NY charter school official admits embezzling $203K.” Associated Press, 3/27/2013

ALBANY (AP) --The former chief financial officer of a foundation that funds charter schools in Albany has admitted embezzling almost $203,000 from the organization.

Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls

“Money woes at charter school; Memo shows Brighter Choice delayed paying some employee benefits; Albany district blamed.” Times-Union (NY), 8/3/2011

ALBANY -- Serious financial trouble has prevented the Brighter Choice Charter School for Girls from paying some employee benefits.

The school had such a hard time meeting payroll that it did not pay the retirement benefits of some employees for several months, according to an internal email obtained by the Times Union. The school is under "tremendous fiscal pressure," Ronald Racela, director of finance and operations for Brighter Choice Charter Schools, wrote to employees to explain why no contributions had been made to their 403(b) retirement plan. He blamed the financial conditions on the Albany school district's withholding of funds, which were finally repaid last week.

"No 'funny business' has occurred with the school's cash and ... we are victims of lack of cash flow due to our biggest funding source (the ACSD) not making good on their responsibility," he wrote.

However, a financial audit on file with the state Education Department indicates the school has suffered financially for years...

Chris Bender, executive director of Brighter Choice Foundation and vice chairman of the school's board, said the school made mistakes in prioritizing how it spent money.

He said he was not sure if it was illegal to withhold retirement fund payments and said it would not happen again. He said the payments were made current last week and that the total was about $10,000.

"We value the employees, we have obligations to pay them and their benefits," he said.

The four months of missed payments are a sure sign that a charter school, generally considered to be one of the city's best, has major financial struggles.

The school's financial picture has darkened for at least two years, according to an audit at the state Education Department.

Brighter Choice ended the 2009-10 school year $453,745 in the red, which was worse than previous year, when its expenses exceeded its income by $311,638...

In 2007, the school was issued $18 million in tax-exempt bonds through the city's IDA to refinance the construction of the school at 250 Central Ave.

If the school were to default on the payment of those bonds, bondholders would be on the hook, not taxpayers.

Brighter Choice charter schools in Albany (three schools)

ALBANY ORDERS CHARTER SCHOOL SIGNS DOWN: BANNERS ACCUSING CITY TREASURER OF RAISING TAXES ARE TOO BIG, OFFICIALS SAY; March 2, 2011, Times Union (Albany, NY)

Several large signs slung from three city charter schools this week targeting Treasurer Kathy Sheehan violate the city's sign law and were to come down Thursday, city and school officials said.

"Any organization has a right to express a political opinion. However, the size is an issue," said Bob Van Amburgh, a senior aide to Mayor Jerry Jennings. "If they want to express a particular opinion, that's fine, but they're going to have to change the size."

City code limits the size of temporary political signs to 16 square feet in a commercial district, Van Amburgh said.

The signs accused Sheehan of voting to raise property taxes -- a reference to the vote by a city economic development panel, Capital Resource Corp., that denied the Brighter Choice Foundation and a related nonprofit access to up to $42 million in tax-free bonds…

The signs -- which read "City Treasurer Kathy Sheehan just voted to raise your property taxes" -- were hung from the Brighter Choice School for Boys on North Lake Avenue, the Brighter Choice School for Girls on Central Avenue and the Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls on Hackett Boulevard on Tuesday…

"I don't intend to respond," Sheehan said. "I've heard this type of tactic referred to as street theater. Economic development for the residents in the city of Albany is far too serious an issue for me to engage in street theater."

Achievement Academy Charter School

A $2 BILLION DECISION: THE CASE FOR REFORMING NEW YORK’S CHARTER SCHOOL LAW, April 2010, New York State United Teachers

..One teacher resigned in protest and another teacher was fired at this Brighter Choice charter school after they discovered hidden cameras, covered by a sweater, in a bookshelf in their classrooms. A teacher said she quit after the videotaping incident because, “I don’t want to be part of a school that thinks they can violate the laws of the land just because they’re a charter school.” Although the charter board chairman said teachers had been aware of the videotaping, the teacher questioned why the cameras were hidden in a bookshelf under a sweater. The teachers also accused Achievement Academy administrators of telling teachers to allow students to see assessments 48 hours to a week in advance so it would appear their test scores would be higher than other Albany public schools. “I was not willing to let them cheat. They wanted teachers to feed test answers to kids. That’s not really a true measurement of education. It’s a charade for the charter review of the school,” the teacher said.

Albany (NY) charter schools (segregation, harassment of public official)

'SUPERMAN' SCREENING A RALLYING POINT FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS; October 22, 2010; Times Union (Albany, NY) 

…On Wednesday, 2,250 charter school students, parents and educators packed the Palace Theatre for a special screening of the movie [Waiting for Superman], sponsored by the Brighter Choice Foundation, which supports 11 charter schools in Albany. The screening audience was one of the biggest in the nation, according to Brighter Choice officials who asked the film's producers to show the movie here because Albany has such a high number of the publicly funded, privately run schools.

…At the screening on Wednesday, students wearing school uniforms paraded the aisles holding placards bearing the cellphone number of Albany school board President Dan Egan. A speaker on stage told the crowd to text "Charter $ Now" to Egan all night and through the weekend, in an attempt to sway the district to pay the higher reimbursement rate it now owes charters.

Jasmine Olds, a 14-year-old freshman at the Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls, handed out cards with Egan's e-mail address and soliciting volunteers for the "Parent Army." She said the movie will bring a welcome focus to the differences of charter schools…

A coalition made up of hundreds of pro-charter groups called Education Reform Now is capitalizing on angry audiences worked up by the film…

Also see: CHARTER TACTIC REPREHENSIBLE; November 2, 2010; Times Union (Albany, NY) 

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THE CHOICE TO BE APART, September 7, 2010, The Times Union (Albany, NY)

Albany's charter schools have created a second school system that is almost entirely segregated.

Virtually all of the schools' students -- 96 percent -- are black or Hispanic, according to a Times Union analysis of data from the 2008-09 school year, the most recent available. Achievement Academy Charter School had only one white student and Albany Preparatory Charter School enrolled just 16 white students, the highest number of any charter school in the city.

The privately run schools are funded by the Albany City School District, where the minority enrollment has been steadily increasing. According to the latest available figures, 80 percent of the district students are minorities…

Still, isolating students by race can have a lasting ripple effect on their education, said University of California at Los Angeles, professor Gary Orfield, who conducted a national study earlier this year on charter school segregation.

"The message is, we're preparing you to live and work in a segregated environment," he said.

If charter schools are to become a significant part of public education, they need to prepare students for the diverse world they will encounter outside of school, Orfield said. Nationally, three of four black students who attend charters are in "intensely segregated" schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent minority, according to the study by The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, a think tank co-founded by Orfield…

Albany Preparatory Charter School

“Reverse course for charters - After long growth trend, school closings signal a period of contraction.” Albany Times Union (NY), 8/15/2012

ALBANY — After a decade of explosive growth, Albany's charter school movement is in a period of contraction.

The city will lose another charter school at the end of the 2012-13 academic year when Achievement Academy Charter School closes its doors, the second charter school in four months to say it will close...

Achievement Academy will become the second charter school supported by Brighter Choice to shut down for poor academics. Albany Preparatory Academy, also a middle school, was shuttered in June.

Both closures are voluntary, though it is unlikely either school would have received state approval to continue operations because student scores on standardized tests have lagged for years...

When Albany Prep shut down in June school officials claimed it was merging with Achievement Academy. However, the state Education Department said the school likely would have not have received renewal approval because of its poor performance. Achievement Academy was then moved to Albany Prep's former location at 75 Park Ave., a former Catholic school and the only building rented by Brighter Choice for one of its schools.

In 2010, both Albany Prep and Achievement Academy were flagged for poor academic and economic performance by the State University of New York's Charter Schools Institute and were given three-year charter renewals instead of the usual five-year renewals awarded to healthy schools.

Achievement Academy is the city's third charter school targeted for closure since 2010. New Covenant Charter School, which was run by a for-profit company, was shuttered by the state in 2010 after years of academic and financial failure and a protracted battle to stay open...

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A $2 BILLION DECISION: THE CASE FOR REFORMING NEW YORK’S CHARTER SCHOOL LAW, April 2010, New York State United Teachers report

…The Albany Preparatory Charter School is facing probation for screening out those with academic challenges. A report by the Charter School Institute found that an administrator trying to improve the school’s test scores denied admission to – or wait-listed – students with learning disabilities. The school also “pre-tested” students, and the parents of those who did not score well were counseled that Albany Prep was “not a good fit.” Charter School Institute inspectors also found that Albany Prep under-reported teacher attrition as well as its number of violent incidents. Although some parents were told there was a waiting list, the school is, in fact, under-enrolled. The report also found that the school’s principal threatened to fire teachers who came forward to blow the whistle. “The extent, specificity and sources of the allegations are unprecedented. The complainants all linked the alleged behavior to attaining higher scores on the state assessments in light of a pending (charter) renewal decision.”

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CHARTER SCHOOL COULD FACE PROBATION; Albany Preparatory is accused of screening potential pupils to weed out those with academic challenges (Times Union, February 22, 2010)

ALBANY -- An Albany charter school is accused of screening potential students to weed out those with academic challenges and could be put on probation this week as a result.
Three former employees of the Albany Preparatory Charter School claimed an administrator at the school was trying to improve the school's scores on state standardized tests by denying admission or wait-listing learning-disabled students, an investigation has found. Some parents of students who did not perform well on a reading test were counseled that the school was "not a good fit" or would have their applications denied, according to a scathing new report by the State University of New York's Charter Schools Institute...