Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School

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

…The Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School in Rochester is an example of the entangled relationships that sometimes exist between non-profits and charter schools. The charter school is sponsored by the Ibero-American Action League, a community group in Rochester, which has a number of interconnected subsidiaries, including the Ibero Housing Corp., the Ibero American Investors Corp., the Ibero American Development Corp. and others.114 The school pays $334,000 in rent to the IAAL.115 The charter school’s board of trustees has in common at least four boardmembers of the IAAL or its affiliated non-profits.116 The charter board’s president’s sister is the school’s highest earner at more than $116,000. The board president’s daughter also teaches at the school; another board member’s wife is the charter’s education coordinator at $78,000 per year. The school’s audit found that accurate enrollment data was not provided to the Rochester city schools, resulting in overpayments to the charter school…


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Makes perfect sense. I made it a priority to get my baby out! She was a straight A pupil, reading at above grade level, yet she was treated as if reading for more than a half An hr was a thing of the past, these teachers were GHETTO,rude,nasty, inexperienced and LACKED PASSION FOR THE OCCUPATION IN WHICH THEY WORKED IN and as a result the students found themselves being disciplined and bullied more than praised and rewarded. Whenever I went to have a FORMAL MEETING with the board, there was NO BOARD! I would call the RETIRED chairperson and he would direct me back to the principal, so technically there is no one higher than the principal in the chain of commands how inappropriate is that?? Their bilingual program is BOGUS! My child came home with no Spanish books, or Spanish work at all! n their model student program consists of them choosing the same kids over and over again. My baby got no incentive at all for working, and reading as hard as she did, on the contrary she was harassed by the teachers and asked if her reading time was legit or if she was just faking it, rather than them doing the PROFESSIONAL thing and calling ME to verify.these people are sad and they lack skills.

Unknown said...

I am a parent of EMHCS. My daughter has been there since kinder. Because if this my youngest was able to enroll.
Show me a perfect system? Good luck finding one.
The truth is that there is no perfect system. There is no perfect school.
I also disagree with many things in my school but I choose to do something about it. Before talking bad about the school we need to be involved. How many PTO have you been part of? How many classes have you visit? Do you take time to come to the school and sit down in your child classroom and help?
The school board is open to parent but every year the school struggles to find parent to be part of the board. I did it for a year. Not an easy task. But because I have been part of it I can talk and give my opinion. It is easy to judge or complaint when that is all we do. Get involved. You are your child's first teacher. We cannon pretend the teachers to educate our children. That is our job. They have their own families to raise. Yes there are so many thing I don't agree about EMHCS but I don't sit down and wait for things to change.I AM PART OF THE CHANGE. I get up and get involved. Not for the school. I get involved because I want my daughters to know that THEIR EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT TO ME.
one last thing. Charter school is a choice for parents. So if parents are not happy about charter school there is a traditional public school just around the corner.

Unknown said...

I am a parent of EMHCS. My daughter has been there since kinder. Because if this my youngest was able to enroll.
Show me a perfect system? Good luck finding one.
The truth is that there is no perfect system. There is no perfect school.
I also disagree with many things in my school but I choose to do something about it. Before talking bad about the school we need to be involved. How many PTO have you been part of? How many classes have you visit? Do you take time to come to the school and sit down in your child classroom and help?
The school board is open to parent but every year the school struggles to find parent to be part of the board. I did it for a year. Not an easy task. But because I have been part of it I can talk and give my opinion. It is easy to judge or complaint when that is all we do. Get involved. You are your child's first teacher. We cannon pretend the teachers to educate our children. That is our job. They have their own families to raise. Yes there are so many thing I don't agree about EMHCS but I don't sit down and wait for things to change.I AM PART OF THE CHANGE. I get up and get involved. Not for the school. I get involved because I want my daughters to know that THEIR EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT TO ME.
one last thing. Charter school is a choice for parents. So if parents are not happy about charter school there is a traditional public school just around the corner.

Unknown said...

Although I agree in some subjects I have to ask you. How many PTO meetings have you attend? Are you part of the board? Have you ever volunteer to be part of it? How involved are you as a parent? When you don't agree about something you have 2 choices. #1 ignore it or #2 do something about it. But the one thing you should not be doing is to complaining about something that you don't like. There is a board of trustees at EMHCS but every year the school struggles to find parents that are willing to compromise one tuesday a months to be part of it. I was part of it for a year. So you see? That gives me a right to talk.
I thought the kids needed something else beside school so together with other involved parents I created the first girl scouts troop for our school. Last yr I had 38 girls registered. This year I had 73. We are all volunteers. We don't make a penny from this. But we are doing this for the children.
Have you spent time in the class room? Do you know all the staff and faculty? I think is very disrespectful of you to talk that way in general. We are very blessed with the teachers at EMHCS. Yes I don't have the same opinion about all of them but we are human. We are not perfect.
Bottom line here is we are our children's first teacher. You cannot expect the teacher to raise your child that is your job. The have their own families to raise.
The money situation? It is real in every single system. The bible says: " money is the root of all evil". There is no perfect system. But when it comes to charter schools we parents have a voice. Board meetings are open to the public. Come sit in one of the meetings and voice your concern. Better yet. Volunteer one tuesday and month for a year and work towards a change.
Charter schools are a choice that we have for our children education. If you don't agree with it I'm sure you have a traditional public school just around the corner. You have choices. Use it.
But complaining does not solve the problem. Be involved. And please wash your dirty laundry at home. If you have a problem with your child's school come to school and discuss it there. Get involved.
I choose to get involved. Not because of the school.
I get involved because my daughters need to know that their education is important to me. That's it!!!!

Anonymous said...

This is my childs first year in the school. I had another child attend the school when it was located on clifford ave back in 2003. I was happy with their system then but this time around is a total different expirience. I try to the best of my ability to help my child, keep up with the homework, reading, attending the uninformative monthly meetings and meet with the teachers when needed. My childs grade average is good, so someone must be doing something right. But. My child has made numerous complaints about the school staff and their professionalism, and the way they treat and bully other students and talk crap about them to other teacher in front of the class. Staff on their cellphones, staff dating staff, kissing in school, engaging in inappropriate conversations with students, sharing personal information without parents consent, they serve spoiled food and milk, they obviously only hire friends and family first. Talk about conflict of intrest. As for you Mrs. Dalmau congratulations on being an outstanding parent practically living in school with the rest of your friends or should I say staff? Thank you for volunteering your time with our children, but sadly some of us have multiple jobs and cannot always run to school for uninformative monthly meetings, and you are absolutely right further up in the next corner is another city school one that probably treat students with decency and dont allow their staff to act the way EMHCS staff act.. This school is a joke

Unknown said...

Don't you get it twisted. #1 I don't live at the school. #2 I worked for 20 years at the University of Rochester #3 I am disable after an accident but I'M STILL A PARENT. The time I spend at the school is to let my daughters know that their education matters to me. But back to the working comment. While I was a full time employee at The UofR, I was a foster parent to nine children (this is before having my own) I had 4 in diapers at one time and 6 in total in my house. I was a single parent. Where I went, ny children went and whatever they needed me for i was there. Never missed a meeting , pto or graduation. There is always time to attend your child school. I dont understand how people complain about the school they choose for they children but don't take the time to meet those that spend most of the day with their children.
When it comes to the staff, I didn't know any of them before but I am glad and comfortable with my relationship with the school's Staff and faculty. I am proud to say that one of my few friends (because im very selective with my friends) is my child's former kindergarten teacher.
My point with all this is: if you don't like a system. Change it.
But you can't seat and criticized the school when you don't do anything to change the school.
So, the next time you suggest that I practically live at the school in a disrespectful way, you need to be ready to write me a check for spending quality time with your child. I do this for free. Physically, is very challenging, what I do for the school. But I want my daughters to see what I do for them and by the way, my oldest one is not at Eugenio anymore but I do the same at her school.
And another thing. If you think the school is such a joke and are so upset about it, the first thing you need to do (in order to be taken seriously) is to identify yourself.
I'm not saying that the school is perfect, but before I decide to complain I try to do something to solve the problem. I did it for my oldest and i decided the school wasn't beneficial for her education anymore and sent her to a different Charter school. After all Charter education is a choice for parents. Complaining will make me part of the problem and not part of the solution

Anonymous said...

I have been with this school lil over 4 years with 2 children at the school and i can say this is the last. I will never even recommend this school to anyone. Bunch of unprofessional ghetto staff. Definitely unorganized. Every time i walk in to pick up my child i have to wait more than 15 minutes just till they locate where is my child. Meanwhile i observe all the madness around teachers arguing with students disrespecting them. Teachers teaming up with other students to drill another student. What kind of example are they? All students being picked up from the same door so my lil one has to see the big ones fighting n kissing all the time. Teachers take students home. Seen with my eyes . Mice and bed bugs were also a problem this year. Awful their is nothing professional about this school. I will never recommend it. Also no one is the main ofgice till pretty late. Thry dont take big problems and concerns serious at all.

Aida Caminero said...

Maria Dalmasu, i agree with you. Be part of the solution is better than keep talking about the problem. No school is perfect. I prefer Charter School