Prime Prep Academy

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.

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...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.

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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...

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would the TEA give Deion such a hard time about opening a school but allows the Gulen Movement free reign in Texas with Harmony Science academy

Anonymous said...

This whole scheme is pretty fishy. Has anyone seen the facilities they are planning on housing these 600-1500 students??? Those facilities aren't big enough to house 300-400 students. The city of Dallas condemned that building---it's horrible. I wouldn't want my son/daughter in it... DL is all about making money.

DezJimmar said...

This whole Prime Prep Academy school/Deion Sanders thing is a joke. It's a fiasco! Now Deion Sanders has signed an agreement with a television network to do a reality show at the school. Using children to personally profit for one's own narcisistic needs is pretty low, even for Deion Sanders.
The Texas Board of Education need to be ashamed of itself.

Anonymous said...

The whole TRUTH organization is a Lie! Deion has people with criminal records working with those kids, hard earnd money missing because there are thieves over the money, very unorganized, coaches who abuse drugs!

Anonymous said...

Until become a part please dont put bad information out there for people to past judegment, god said judge on your self, do not pass judgement on other, my son is a 4 year member of the TRUTH organization and he have enjoyed every mintute of it. As far a the school he currently attend and he loves being there. I haven't seen a smile as big as it has been since day one of school. With everything you have to start so where because if he would build brand new from ground up you would have had problem with that. so all you HATER!congratulate when you see something that helping the BLACK community ! GROW UP and MOVE ON! TALK what you know and not what you heard. FACTS FACTS FACTS

Anonymous said...

Im not sure whether or not DL Wallace is a scam artist, or what exactly Deion has envolved himself with concerning the TRUTH organization, but my child is attending Prime Prep Academy in Fort Worth and I must say Im not impressed. Mr. Wallace, Mr Sanders if you read this Blog please know that some of us actually expect more from you DEION!!! My hope is that you dont allow your name to be associated with a failing school meant to Help the community.. The school is filthy, it needs remodeling like last year. If you are claiming "private school" qualities and "upper echelon" DELIVER!!!!! Dont be THE stereotype please. Get organized hire acdemic professionals who know what the heck to do. Dont be obtuse and show your ignorance. Lets face it, the plan is failing and going no where FAST! Get it together and do it RIGHT!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The Fort Worth campus is horrible and its heartbreaking...kids attend

Anonymous said...

The school is bad it is very bad girls getting mess with when they in the restroom. The school should just get close down right now. The school is the baddest school I every seen students going down the hallway cussing. Deion need to close it down and just go to normal job.

Anonymous said...

The school going to be close down. DL Wallace just don't want to tell the student and the parent what is going

Anonymous said...

What's heartbreaking is people tend to favor criticism rather praise for good effects to create a school that help kids in under privileged communities.

Prime Prep Academy is here and it's a humble start. The people that operate these campuses are not perfect, the teachers are not perfect, the parents are not perfect, and our kids are not perfect.

We need to come together and find a way to make the Prime Prep Academy successful in the communities and kids it serves.

Anonymous said...

Prime Prep is Primed for failure, what started as a joke has evolved into a nightmare. The basketball team is a stolen team from Grace Christian in Dallas. The coach TOOK PLAYERS TO prime prep from there when he was ask to coach at prime. What a disaster, Deon is using his name to make more money and bring attention to himself, again!

Anonymous said...

The leader of this charter school is a great big fraud. D.L. Wallace is nothing but a loud mouth joke. I predict Prime Prep to close down permanently at the end of this school year.

Anonymous said...

I just continue to hear bad things about this school. Make you wonder what's going on.

Anonymous said...

I'm hearing some parents will not allow their kids to attend this school next year.

Anonymous said...

I hearing the same thing. This school is gonna be history in do time.

Anonymous said...

This school is toast. They lied to the students and parents regarding the NCAA requirments. Deion Sanders is not be trusted. What a waste of taxpayers money.

Anonymous said...

I have been in education for years and the problem with this place is that it was founded by people who have no clue on how to run a school or much less run a classroom. Sanders was great football player, it was his craft, his career but not education. Charter schools fall under a different umbrella when it comes to hiring teachers, personnel, and administrators. For example, a person who works in the cooperate world can go to prime prep and get hired as an administrator because have management experience in the corporate world. Also, let just say the individual has a bachelors, no educators certification, and no masters. They are hired to run a school as if it was a business and it doesn't work that way. If a person applied to a public school they would have to have a minimum of a masters, a principal certification and at least 3 to 5 five years successful classroom teaching experience.

Secondly, the school is known for its powerhouse football team. Well, just food for thought, I worked with an individual who graduated from prime prep academy. Sadly, they did not speak in a professional manner, they read on a third grade level, and all they knew was pretty much football. So, it really makes you wonder how much college prep these students are receiving because this individual could not handle a community college much less a university.

Perhaps, the way to save Prime Prep is to hire a no holds bars administrator who is certified and will be willing to put in the time and the effort to make the school successful. If Deion want to be a founder than he should take the Robert Kraft approach: hire a experienced administrator, walk away, and let that person do their job and run the schools/district.