Eric Mahmoud charter schools

“Georgia file connects Twin Cities charter school, fraud scheme.” Star Tribune (MN), 3/22/2013

When the news broke last summer that charter school entrepreneur Eric Mahmoud had entered a guilty plea to a mortgage fraud charge in Georgia, Mahmoud had a ready comeback for the Minneapolis school district, under whose authorization he was opening another charter school.

“I assure you that this was a personal, residential matter in Georgia and had nothing to do with Seed Daycare, Harvest Prep or any other educational institution,” Mahmoud told Sara Paul, the district’s liaison with charter schools, in an Aug. 16 e-mail.

In that case, Mahmoud has some explaining to do.

UNO Charter Schools

“More money from clout-heavy Hispanic group UNO went to insider.” Chicago Sun Times (IL), 4/22/2013

Weeks after Federico “Fred” d’Escoto stepped down from the board of the United Neighborhood Organization, his company, d’Escoto Inc., got its first check from the influential charter-school operator toward what now totals more than $1.8 million in state-funded payments.

But d’Escoto Inc.’s ties to UNO — part of a pattern of insider hiring now under scrutiny by state authorities — date back years before that, internal documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

EdVantages Academics

“Charter schools pay off for CEO’s family.” Dayton Daily News (OH), 12/15/2012

A Dayton Daily News investigation found that a company managing several taxpayer-funded charter schools in the area is a lucrative family business whose husband-and-wife management team makes more than $400,000 a year.

NorthStar High School

“Sentinel Watchdog: Failed charter school paid principal's husband $460K.” Orlando Sentinel (FL), 12/1/2012

The failed Orange County charter school that gave its principal a payout of $519,000 in taxpayer dollars after closing in June also paid her husband more than $460,000 during a five-year period, audits show.

The payments to Steven A. Young, which averaged more than $80,000 a year, were for performing "certain management services," according to annual audits paid for by the school. The total included about $41,000 for services to be performed after the school closed, according to one of the audits.

Happy Valley School

“Insiders benefiting in charter deals, Board members, school officials did more than $70mil in business.” The Arizona Republic, 11/17/2012

... The Gaddie family reflects how family ties can run deep at charter schools.

Happy Valley School in Peoria has a three-member non-profit board made up entirely of Gaddie family members, according to the most recent federal tax return. Ernest Gaddie is president. His wife, Delite Gaddie, is secretary, and their son, Glen Gaddie, is a board member...

For several years, the school has contracted with Gaddie Curriculum & Education Consulting, a business owned by Ernest and Delite Gaddie. The company provides business consulting, maintenance and operations services and licenses curriculum to the school, according to tax returns and audits...

Espiritu Schools

“4 charter-school organizations where insiders benefited.” The Arizona Republic, 11/17/2012

Payments: No other large charter school has as many transactions involving family members as Espiritu Schools in south Phoenix. Armando Ruiz is the founder and a board member for Espiritu, a non-profit that operates three schools on one property. He also is on the board of a separate non-profit, called the A Group, that gets paid by Espiritu to handle non-academic functions of the school such as technology, sports, parent involvement, bookkeeping and human resources. This allows educators to focus solely on academics, he said.

Ruiz’s schools also pay rent to a third non-profit, called Project America, that owns the land and whose president and board are made up of Ruiz’s brother, sister and nephew. That non-profit, in turn, donates a chunk of its money to a charity, Mary’s Ministries, founded by the Ruizes’ mother, Estella Ruiz, that trains community leaders to conduct spiritual workshops. Over the last five years, Espiritu has paid $615,624 in salaries to nine members of the Ruiz family who also served on the Espiritu board...

New Millennium Institute of Education

“Troubled New Millennium charter school keeps getting second chances.” Fresno Bee (CA), 9/16/2012

In February 2011, after a decade of dismal performance, the New Millennium charter school in west Fresno turned to Dr. Ernie Smith for help...

As he dug in, Smith said he was unprepared for the sheer level of dysfunction he encountered at New Millennium -- and the hands-off attitude of Fresno Unified...

Virtual Community School of Ohio

“Reynoldsburg board places virtual school on probation.” ThisWeek Community News (OH), 7/18/2012

The Reynoldsburg Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday, July 17, to impose a probation period of one school year for the Virtual Community School of Ohio.

Board members had discussed suspending the online school, which serves 1,300 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, because of concerns over finances and hiring practices, but instead agreed to place the school on probation for the 2012-13 school year.

The Reynoldsburg district sponsors the online charter school.

Superintendent Steve Dackin said he was prepared to "trust but verify."

A state audit in January revealed the online school was facing an $800,000 deficit for the 2012-13 school year and had failed to satisfy its debts and liabilities or pay bills on time.

The audit also said the school had hired the wife, brother and son of Virtual Community School Superintendent James McCord, a possible violation of Ohio's ethics laws.

"We had great concerns about the financial audit of VCS," Dackin said. "We created a list of assurances for the school to respond to and they have agreed to those assurances.

"I am prepared to trust, but verify, that they will follow the plan during the probation period," he said.

School of Success Academy Charter Middle School

“Duval charter school struggling to survive; The School of Success struggles with poor scores and financial issues.” The Florida Times-Union, 3/19/2012

One of Jacksonville’s oldest charter schools faces potential closure because of chronic problems including failure to meet state and federal student academic proficiency standards.

School of Success Academy Charter Middle School is also about $40,759 in the red this year – continuing an annual deficit trend that began in the 2007-08 term. And its five-year lease with the city for the school’s property ended nine months ago. It is now renting it on a month-to-month basis...

The academy has received a school grade of “D” each school year since 2008-09. Its charter contract requires at least a “C” grade or better.

Duval County schools Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals has recommended to the School Board that the district not renew the academy’s charter contract. In his recommendation, Pratt-Dannals details a series of deficiencies consistently found by district officials during regular site visits over the past five years, with the most recent visit in February...

Saying the school provides a quality education, [Genell M. Mills, academy principal and director] noted it already corrected many of the issues — including nepotism, sloppy bookkeeping and accounting practices, and fingerprinting and criminal background checks on employees — that district officials cited as deficiencies...

Approved in May 1997, the academy at 6974 Wilson Blvd. was one of the original three charter schools that opened in Duval County. It has an enrollment cap of 500 students, but has enrolled fewer than 300 annually over the past four years. The academy’s contract expires June 30, and it wants a 10-year renewal...

When the district receives the academy’s appeal notice, the School Board will decide whether to hear the matter itself or refer it to the state Division of Administrative Hearings. Either way, the district will have 60 days to act on the academy’s request for a hearing, said Karen Chastain, the school district’s lawyer.

Harmony charter school network (TX)

“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:

• “Harmony Public Schools, AKA Harmony Science Academy schools / Cosmos Foundation"
• "The New York Times vs Harmony Public Schools"
• "Gulen charter schools in Texas"

Career Academic Technical Academy

“APS board revokes charter school's license." KOB.com (NM), 9/21/2011

Albuquerque Public Schools school board voted Wednesday evening to revoke a charter school's license after an audit showed the principal violated policy by hiring family members.

The audit said Career Academic and Technology Academy Charter School Principal Glee Hare hired her brother and son and said the governing board contracted a deal with another one of her sons.

Attorneys for the Career Academic and Technology Academy charter school defended the hires and said certain nepotism regulations were not in effect at the time of the hires and once those new rules were set in place in 2008, the school took proper action to make sure the hires were legal...

The school is now set to close at the end of the school year, but the school can appeal the decision...

Halau Lokahi Public Charter School

“Charter school lessens debt, kin exit board.” Honolulu Star Advertiser 6/17/11

In response to its first financial audit, Halau Lokahi Public Charter School in Kalihi is working to fix accounting problems and repay its debts, and has removed family members from the local school board that oversees it.

"Halau Lokahi has made changes and taken immediate corrective actions as recommended by the auditor," said June Nagasawa, chairwoman of the local board for the 10-year-old, Hawaiian-focused school, which employs several members of the director's family and touts its atmosphere of ohana...

The independent auditor that reviewed Lokahi's books cited problems with internal financial controls, unrecorded liabilities, payments to related parties and a lack of verification of employee advances. The school ended the 2010 fiscal year $425,000 in debt. Halau Lokahi's director, Laara Allbrett, said it has erased most of that liability this fiscal year, thanks to an infusion of federal stimulus money that went toward teacher salaries.

The charter school has 244 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Half are enrolled in its Hawaiian project-based curriculum, and the rest take classes online with Elite Element Academy, a local private school.

Halau Lokahi's 22-member staff includes Allbrett, two daughters, a son, a son-in-law and the son's girlfriend. Allbrett's son is a project manager, her son-in-law is a teacher and the others handle mostly administrative and clerical tasks. One daughter was also the treasurer of the local school board until stepping down from that volunteer position at the advice of the auditor, along with her brother, who was the board's secretary...

"The families come to us because they are sending their children to be educated by a family," said Leo Akana, a cultural and performing arts specialist at the school. "That's the way our families look at us, and that's how we look at them. We consider it an honor, a privilege and a huge responsibility to be their makua, their parents during the day. The Western notion of family comes first, favoritism — that is not the case here at all."

This year all of Hawaii's 31 charter schools were required for the first time to submit independent financial audits for the 2010 fiscal year to the state Charter School Review Panel. Halau Lokahi missed the deadline early this year and submitted its audit last month. It was one of five schools that had negative or marginal net assets and the only charter whose auditor declined to render an opinion, also known as a "disclaimed" audit, according to Bob Roberts, chief financial officer of the Charter School Administrative Office. Carbonaro CPA & Associates of Hilo, which audited most of the state's charters, said it was unable to form an opinion of Halau Lokahi's finances because it could not rely on internal controls at the school and was reviewing only one year's accounts.

"One audit was disclaimed, and that's not a good audit opinion, and the panel feels that it should look into that," said Ruth Tschumy, chairwoman of the state Charter School Review Panel. "It was discussed in the Finance Committee meeting, and the panel has put it on the agenda for its June 23 meeting."

...The [test] scores combine the performance of its day students with its "cyber" students who are studying with Elite Element Academy. That nonprofit online school was opened in 2007 by Heather Kanoe Ahuna and Reydan "Tita" Ahuna, and charges its private students $7,200 per year in tuition. The Charter School Review Panel has asked that the test scores be separated for review.

"The panel has had a hard time determining whether the students are students of Halau Lokahi or Elite Academy," Tschumy said...

Berean Academy

“Berean staff air issues at meeting.” The Sierra Vista Herald (AZ) 02 Jun 2011 

SIERRA VISTA — After cutting his staff’s pay with little notice in May, Berean Academy Director Jim Fogarty was accused of mismanaging funds, violating the school’s by-laws, using improper accounting procedures and violating teacher contracts during a special board meeting Thursday night...

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“Berean board delays decision on staff grievance.” The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review (AZ) 30 Jun 2011 

SIERRA VISTA — After waiting almost a month for a response to allegations against school director Jim Fogarty, the Berean Academy staff learned on Thursday that they will have to wait a while longer...

A complaint was filed with the state charter school board following the last meeting on June 2 when staff members accused Fogarty of mismanaging funds, violating the school’s by-laws, using improper accounting procedures and violating teacher contracts. Staff members were reacting to a sudden 30 percent reduction to their last three paychecks and what they called an “absurdly inadequate” response to a grievance they filed with Fogarty.

In addition to the June 2 meeting minutes, the state board requested all the materials provided to the board regarding the contents of the Herald/Review article that ran the next day. The issue of apparent concern to the person who filed the complaint was sixth-grade teacher Jennifer Schnupp’s statement that Fogarty admitted to using school funds for a private corporation — Berean Academy Pre-school — which operated at a loss.

Fogarty’s response to the state board includes articles of incorporation that show the preschool was formed as a non-profit subsidiary of the corporation. 

“Understandably several of the staff were upset when I talked with them about the pay cuts. Unfortunately several were too angry to hear anything I said,” Fogarty stated, in a response to the state board of charter schools. “I did NOT say ‘I used Berean Academy funds for the private corporation Berean Academy Preschool.’ There is no reason for me to mis-state the truth to my own detriment.”...

On Thursday, 28 days after the June 2 meeting, the staff still received no substantive response from the board regarding any of their numerous concerns and proposed solutions. After having their pay cut with three days notice and receiving little feedback from the board, the staff’s discontent was evident during Call to the Public at the meeting...

“It’s really hard to believe that nobody on that board had any idea this was coming down because that screams incompetence. Somebody had to know and yet we weren’t given a chance to prepare for it,” [school employee Donna] Hunt said. “If the employees of Berean had behaved in this manner, they would have been fired immediately … Instead of acting irresponsibly we have poured our hearts and our souls into this school.”...

Larry Graham’s grandson has been a student at Berean for seven years and Graham is an ardent supporter of each and every staff member after knowing them for years, he said...

After serving on a variety of boards in Arizona and California, this is the first time he has seen one where the executive officer and their spouse sit on the same board, Graham said.

“This completely eliminates any possibility of a board being unbiased. I think the only honorable and Christian answer to these problems is the immediate resignation of both the board president and his spouse.”

Eagles Peak Charter School (4000 students)

FORMER SCHOOL DIRECTOR GETS $1M.  North County Times (San Diego County, CA) 20 Aug 2010 

A jury awarded the former executive director of the now-defunct Eagles Peak Charter School $1 million this week in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed after the administrator was fired in 2008, an attorney said Friday.

In the lawsuit, the former executive, Rich Alderson, accused the school’s board of directors of firing him after less than a year on the job for refusing to retaliate against employees who had criticized them.

The jury determined that the school acted with fraud, malice or oppression, according to Bob Ottilie, Alderson’s attorney…

Rehoboth Charter Academy

"Regulation of charter schools debated after academy is shut down." The Press-Enterprise (CA), 2/17/2008

…The Riverside County schools office cited concerns about conflict of interest, among other problems, in 2006 when it refused to sponsor a Riverside charter school. The Riverside Unified School District declined to renew the charter for the school, Rehoboth Charter Academy, and the operators appealed to the county office.

County schools officials said they were uneasy that the husband of Rehoboth's principal was serving as president of the school's board. The school closed in 2007, after an unsuccessful appeal to the State Board of Education…

TerraNova Academy

CHARTER SCHOOL FORCED TO CLOSE; July 27, 2004; Sun Sentinel (FL) 

The directors of a troubled, year-old charter school hit by financial woes, a deteriorating governing board and infighting closed the school Monday night.

TerraNova Academy in West Palm Beach had too many problems to remain open, said Chuck Shaw, charter schools chief for the Palm Beach County School District. The charter school's governing board voted during a special meeting Monday night to close the school.

"The school's debt is now approaching around $100,000," said Shaw. "Having to pay off that debt it almost makes it impossible to open. They gave it a shot, and it doesn't look like they can pull it off."

Shaw said he wanted to give the school a chance to close itself or the district would be forced to close it. TerraNova parents may be able to reopen the school "once they get it together," Shaw said. His office is scrambling to place as many as 200 students in other schools before school starts in two weeks.

Shaw said he couldn't allow the charter school to open because teachers are headed back to school next week and the school doesn't have a building that is up to code for classroom space. Last year, the school held classes at Tabernacle of Love in Palm Springs.

Meanwhile, the school's founder and former principal, Leo Cardona, claims he is a victim of the School District and a handful of board members out to destroy his vision to educate Hispanic children. Cardona also founded Spanish Academy in Boca Raton.

He said he knows the school might not reopen. "At this point I don't really care. I don't want to be part of that show any more," he said.

TerraNova, like all charter schools, was publicly funded but privately managed. It opened with promise in August. Parents hoped the school would offer a quality bilingual education for their youngsters. But by the end of the school year too much had been revealed and too much had gone wrong. Although the school received more than $500,000 in public funds to teach English as a second language, the school's language program was not effective.

The school's finances appeared to be on an upswing last month when the board removed Cardona from his $65,000 executive director position and eliminated a $30,000 TerraNova job held by Cardona's son, David.

But the school's original board resigned about three weeks ago amid chaos and the board's inability to make decisions. A new board of mostly parents tried to save the school during the past two weeks, but even that new board disintegrated amid confusion.

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CHARTER SCHOOL'S BOARD MEMBERS CALL IT QUITS IN FRUSTRATION; July 8, 2004; Palm Beach Post (FL) 

TerraNova charter school's governing board disintegrated this week with four of five members resigning following months of infighting and confusion over leadership at the West Palm Beach school.

A fifth board member, Jay Steele, who was absent from a meeting Tuesday night, said Wednesday that running the public school was a "nuisance" but did not say whether he planned to resign also.

"I didn't really wish to be on this board to begin with," Steele said.

New board members are scheduled to be nominated and elected at a July 13 meeting - less than a month before the first day of school.

Founding board member Laurel Cherwin-Salmon said she resigned to give parents a chance to serve on the board, but also because she was frustrated by the inability of the board to get information from Leo Cardona, who served as principal last school year.

"If you keep everyone in a state of confusion, then nothing gets accomplished," she said…

TerraNova has been under scrutiny for months after district officials realized its administration was not following basic rules for public charter schools.

Chuck Shaw, director of charter schools for the school district, said the school has been operating without approved contracts or job descriptions for employees, has never turned in board minutes to his office, and does not have an appropriate budget.

The school also has moved into a new facility without a lease, and it's unclear whether a new principal has been hired or not. According to minutes from a June 1 meeting, Cardona hired a new principal on May 12 without a draft budget outlining her salary, or approval from the board…

A. Phillip Randolph Leadership Academy

"When charters close, public schools foot the bill." Voice of San Diego (CA), 12/4/2007

Spending scandals brought down Children's Conservation Academy, a City Heights charter school shuttered in 2007, only two years after it opened. A year earlier, A. Phillip Randolph Leadership Academy dissolved, with questions swirling around its finances. Its closure echoed that of Jola Community Charter School, a girls' charter that sunk two months after opening in 2005.

These schools and two other closed charters owe more than $300,000 to San Diego Unified School District in unpaid fees and property taxes. None have repaid the district. School staff doubts they ever will…

San Antonio Preparatory Academy district (two campuses)

TEA ALLEGES ILLEGALITIES AT DISTRICT: AUDIT ACCUSES CHARTER SCHOOLS' EX-CHIEF OF NEPOTISM, COLLECTING CASH SENT TO FICTITIOUS VENDORS; April 3, 2011: San Antonio Express-News (TX) 

San Antonio Preparatory Academy, a charter school district ordered closed, was run by a superintendent convicted of defrauding a bank, a violation of state law — one of several major allegations of mismanagement found by state auditors.

Most of the audit by the Texas Education Agency alleges wrongdoing by former Superintendent Roi Garcia, son of Raul Garcia, who founded the charter school in 2003 and is chairman of the governing board. Roi Garcia resigned a year ago, the audit said.

Roi Garcia also is accused of misusing state money to pay fictitious vendors and depositing the payments in what the TEA describes as his personal bank account, according to its investigation.

The TEA audit also found that the district had employed 29 family members or members of El Sendero Assembly of God Church, where Raul Garcia serves as pastor. None had been hired according to state-mandated practices, the TEA found…

Roi Garcia gave a contractor a false Social Security number to use so the school could hire him as a vendor, according to a signed statement by the contractor. The number belonged to Garcia's wife, the audit said.

Auditors found doctored vendor invoices on a computer that Roi Garcia submitted for payment to the school. The checks were then deposited into Garcia's bank account.

An employee told auditors she was directed by Roi Garcia to alter a receipt for goods he had purchased for the church that he planned to submit to the school for reimbursement.

Charter school employees were used to perform personal services for Roi Garcia, such as mowing grass and moving exercise equipment.

The district contracted with people who had personal relationships with the Garcias, such as Roi's brother-in-law who was the school's heating and air conditioning repairman. The TEA found he was not licensed to perform that work…

The audit lists at least 14 checks drawn on taxpayer funds to pay vendors that were instead deposited into the bank account controlled by Roi Garcia under the name Pathway Educational Ministry. It was the same account in which he deposited his personal paychecks, the audit found.

The audit states that Roi Garcia's resignation occurred after an anonymous letter, mailed to the TEA and Raul Garcia, said Roi Garcia was convicted of felony bank fraud.

According to federal records, Roi Garcia, listed under his birth name Roy Larry Garcia, pleaded guilty in 1988 to lying on a savings and loan association application. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison and paroled in 1989.

Garcia sent the TEA a form dated Nov. 16, 2009, and included in the audit that stated he was not convicted of a felony. The penalty for lying on the form is perjury…

Raul Garcia maintains the charter district is not related to the church. The TEA sees it differently, as its audit reported that Sendero Academy rents space from his church and San Antonio Preparatory Academy rents from a ministry Roi Garcia runs…

Einstein Charter School

EINSTEIN CHARTER IN EASTERN N.O. FACES ANOTHER OPERATIONS CRISIS: December 17, 2007; New Orleans CityBusiness (LA)

Einstein Charter School could be shut down in the middle of this school year unless it can extend its school lease…

Organizational concerns have dogged the eastern New Orleans school for much of its short existence. It opened for the 2006-07 school year…

But the school has attracted its share of controversy.

Alice and Ron Midkiff, the husband-and-wife team who formed the school, were accused of nepotism, racism and abuse earlier this year by parents and former teachers. Critics alleged harsh punishments were unfairly doled out for minor offenses by friends and family members of the administration.

Ron Midkiff said eight teachers were asked to leave at the end of last year. Friends and colleagues from other schools were hired to fill the vacancies after recommendations from remaining teachers.

"That's a pretty good indication that you're doing something right when your teachers recommend you like that," Ron Midkiff said.

Problems escalated for the Midkiffs, who employed two of their own children last year: John Midkiff as a physical education teacher and Melissa Midkiff as the school finance manager. This brought on charges of nepotism.

The school was also faulted for its paperwork. Orleans Parish School Board and State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek threatened to revoke Einstein's OPSB charter if the school administration did not prove the 501c3 tax-exempt status of the governing board, Einstein Group Inc…

"I think overall the tone is that the OPSB is working with them (the Einstein administration) and wants them to succeed and has found them to be cooperative," he said. "There are certain things that are under the purview of Superintendent Pastorek, and the lease is one of those."

Pastorek said his ultimate decision on Einstein's future hinges on the findings of an outside law firm hired by parents and teachers to investigate reports of wrongdoing by the Midkiff family…

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PROTESTERS CALL FOR REMOVAL OF MIDKIFF FAMILY FROM STAFF OF NEW ORLEANS CHARTER SCHOOL; August 6, 2007, New Orleans CityBusiness 

Parents and faculty members have accused the administration of Einstein Charter School in eastern New Orleans of verbal abuse, nepotism, firearms violations and racism.

At a press conference July 28, protesters called for the removal of the Midkiff family who helped the Einstein Group Inc. charter the school in 2004.

Alice Midkiff is school director and her husband, Ronald Midkiff, is principal.

Son John Midkiff was a physical education instructor last year, and daughter Melissa Midkiff was the school's finance manager.

Larry Demmons, an attorney representing the Einstein Group and the Midkiffs, said John and Melissa Midkiff are no longer employed by the school, although the exact circumstances of their departure is unclear…

"The Midkiffs are getting away with bloody murder and it doesn't seem that anyone is concerned about this," said Cheryl Washington, whose daughter attended Einstein last year. "This is the welfare of our children we're talking about."

The Midkiffs and their inner circle of friends hired as teachers and administrators were verbally abusive to the students, Washington said, prompting her to send her daughter elsewhere for eighth grade.

"We can't tolerate that," she said. "And to be honest with you, probably half the students there, the African-American kids and the Vietnamese kids, are not returning because of the Midkiffs."…

Former eighth-grade teacher Kendria Jones said John Midkiff showed off two handguns to students on the school grounds…

John Midkiff also reportedly used racial slurs in addressing students, Jones said, which stirred racial discord at the school with a student body of mostly African-American and Asian-American students. The Midkiffs are white…

Equality Charter School

CHARTER SCHOOL, STRUGGLING, HIRED LEADERS' KIN; Friday, Oct 15, 2010; City Limits (New York City, NY) 

…In [Equality Charter School’s] charter application to the city and the state, the school's co-founders Myers (who serves as principal), Margaret Hoey and Caitlin Franco cited long expertise as educators, data-managers and disciplinarians in institutions, schools and other settings that serve troubled youth.

Equality Charter's first year was marked by near-constant change in staffing patterns and enrollment: Co-founder Hoey left midyear to spearhead efforts to establish yet another New York City charter school, the Swedish-styled Kunskapsskolan school, which aims to open in 2011. Board members and two board chairmen were replaced, numerous teachers were fired and replaced or invited not to return, and nearly two dozen students left the school, many well before the end of the school year, according to Myers.

The year was also marked, parents and students say, by student rough-housing that often got out of control. On the Department of Education Learning Environment Survey conducted during the school's first year, parents, teachers and nearly all of the school's students identified safety as a real concern. Half of the teachers and a third of parents expressed fears about bullying, safety and school discipline. Bullying and threats were an issue for 84 percent of students, who also reported that teachers yell at students (81 percent) and that student get into physical fights (93 percent)…

Some parents of students with special needs say the school did not deliver mandated services to their children. (DOE statistics show that charters citywide generally enroll fewer special-education students than traditional public schools, a gap the state's new charter law aims to address.)

One parent, Lori Gill, enrolled her two sons at Equality Charter school in August 2009, after the lottery was drawn and the school’s wait list was created; the boys got priority because one son had special needs.

But both boys moved to a traditional public school this year, Gill says, largely because her son Darren received many fewer services than the school first promised and that he was legally mandated to receive…

One dean, Devon Myers, is married to the principal. The other, Mark Hines, is engaged to Assistant Principal Franco; his daughter was, briefly, a student at Equity Charter School, until she enrolled at Truman High School this September…

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Additional information is at Equality Charter School: A Failing, Corrupt, Mismanaged Charter School @ http://www.equalitycharterschool.com/