A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.
As they
move to close down a network of St.
Louis charter schools over the next several weeks,
state education officials face a task as monumental and complicated as
dismantling an entire school district...
In fact,
the decision this week by Missouri's Board of Education to shutter six Imagine
charter schools in St. Louis will likely result in the largest charter school
closure of its kind nationwide, according to the National Alliance for Public
Charter Schools...
Possibility Prep Public Charter School officials said Tuesday that they’ve gotten a stay of execution, after lawyers struck a tentative deal to hold off revoking the embattled school’s charter until the Maryland State Department of Education can review an appeal by the school.
Officials and parents had been stunned Monday night after the Prince George’s County Board of Education voted to close the county’s only all-boys middle school at the end of its first year.
The board voted 6-1 to revoke the Upper Marlboro school’s charter agreement, after schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. highlighted the issues of enrollment and the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum, which he called deficient...
Board Member Henry P. Armwood Jr. (Dist. 7) said that while the board supports the concept of a STEM-focused school, such an undertaking cannot afford to suffer from the upheaval Possibility Prep experienced during the first half of the school year. Many parents pulled their students out of the school, and the school’s first principal left in December...
Teresa Gerchman, vice president for educational services at Edison Learning, the school’s management company, said Board Member Rosalind A. Johnson’s (Dist. 1) statement that the county had to provide computer hardware to the school because Edison didn’t was outright false...
A San Francisco charter school that has broken ties with a controversial national company is making its third try this school year to win renewal of its charter.
The academic year is off to a rocky start at the Charter School for Science and Technology, the state's largest charter school. Earlier this month it announced that it was dropping its 9th- and 10th-grade programs for this year, forcing 122 students to scurry to find other schools. The beginning of classes has been delayed by nine school days, to Sept. 4, to give teachers and administrators more time. The science tables have not been installed for laboratory work. The job of principal remains unfilled.
The school and its management company, Edison Schools Inc., are trying to rebound from a year of disappointing test scores, classroom behavior problems and turnover of students and teachers. The school and Edison hope that by delaying the high school programs and sharpening curriculum, they can improve academic performance in kindergarten through eighth grade...
A strong showing in Rochester is increasingly important to Edison, whose stock price has plummeted in recent months after a series of setbacks. Last week, officials in Georgia voted to end Edison contracts for two elementary schools in Macon. The Dallas school superintendent has said he wants to cancel his district's contract with Edison. In Philadelphia, the company received a contract to run only 20 city schools rather than the 45 it had hoped for.
The Philadelphia experience has led Edison to redouble its efforts to run large charter schools like Rochester's, said John Chubb, Edison's chief education officer, who met with board members and teachers today to outline plans to improve achievement. ''We're more than happy to do large clusters in urban areas,'' he said, ''but the politics of that is very challenging.''
Signaling Rochester's importance, H. Christopher Whittle, Edison's founder and chief executive, visited last week. Performance is critical this year, its third, since Edison makes the review of its five-year charter depend chiefly on a school's performance in its third year.
''By your fourth year, you have to look like you've created a school that deserves to stay open,'' Mr. Chubb said. ''You want to create a model school, not just a school that can hold onto its charter.''…
Nineteen students from Confluence Preparatory Academy charter high school were treated at two area hospitals Friday after security guards at the school sprayed pepper spray into a crowd to break up a fight.
The melee occurred in a hallway as students were changing classes, said Michael Serpe, spokesman for Edison Learning, the management company that operates the charter school at 310 North 15th Street in downtown St. Louis…
The children transported to hospitals have varying degrees of chemical exposure, said Bob Davidson, spokesman for Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, where 15 of the students were treated. "We'll be doing some eye irrigation. Everyone will be going home."
Four other students were transported to St. Louis Children's Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman there said.
Shanshatara Baker, 15, a Confluence student, said three security guards were spraying Mace, "like it was air freshener."…
For 15-year-old Joyce Smith, who was also treated at Cardinal Glennon, Friday was not the first time a fight at the school had sent her to the emergency room. Last spring, she said, a fight broke out in the lunch room and a table collapsed on her, dislocating her knee.
Newman said she plans to talk with her daughter about pulling her granddaughter from the school. She's concerned that the fights could escalate and compromise students' safety. And she's upset with the way the guards handled the situation. "They endangered a lot of other kids," she said…
Friday's incident marked the second time this year that security guards at an area high school have used pepper spray to break up a fight. In October, an off-duty police officer working at Riverview Gardens High School sprayed pepper spray into a crowd of students when some of them became unruly.
Confluence Preparatory Academy is one of four charter schools in the Confluence Academy system. The other campuses are elementary and middle schools…
School administrators at all four campuses are known for being strict with behavior. Students as young as kindergartners receive suspensions every week for such things as mouthing off, pushing other students and leaving the classroom without permission.
In September, students at the high school received 44 out-of-school suspensions, according to school data.
EDISON SETTLES PHILADELPHIA LAWSUIT OVER STUDENT ASSAULT; July 1, 2008; American School & University (Online Exclusive)
Days after arguing in court that it was not responsible for the safety of its pupils, Edison Schools Inc. has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a boy raped in one of its Philadelphia schools. In 2004, a 12-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by an 11-year-old classmate in Stetson Middle School. The boy's family contended in a lawsuit that Edison was responsible for the assault, a notion the for-profit manager of 16 public schools rejected. Edison contended that the terms of its contract with the Philadelphia School District called only for it to provide educational programs and training. The family has confirmed that the lawsuit has been settled, but would not discuss details.
PHILADELPHIA -- An outraged mother says that her 12-year-old son was raped by an 11-year-old classmate at John B. Stetson Middle School in Philadelphia.
The 11-year-old has been charged with involuntary deviate sexual behavior.
The 12-year-old said it all started with a fight over a ball on Tuesday. Minutes later, the boy claimed, he was being sexually attacked…
"I'm upset with the school. They couldn't see two children fighting and somehow they get into the fire escape. How did that happen? How do you go in there without nobody noticing? No alarm systems, no cameras," the boy's mother said…
Late Wednesday afternoon, Edison Schools spokesman Richard Barth said there are no cameras where the alleged rape occurred.
"We are -- Edison Schools and the school district of Philadelphia, which are partners working at Stetson Middle School -- are conducting an internal investigation," Barth said…
The alleged victim has been allowed to transfer to another school. The boy accused of the attack has been expelled. Crisis counseling has been offered to both families.
The Pittsburgh school board voted last night to shut down an East Liberty charter school.
Officials cited financial concerns, a lack of criminal background checks on employees and other problems with Renaissance Academy of Pittsburgh Alternative of Hope, an elementary school.
Board members voted 8-0 against granting the school a five-year renewal of its charter, with Mark Brentley abstaining.
The board in November signaled its desire to close the school, which opened in 2003. The school may appeal the board's ruling to the state.
It wasn't immediately clear when the school's original charter expires.
* * * * * * * * * * *
CHARTER SCHOOL ORDERED TO FIX CODE VIOLATIONS; January 27, 2005: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
The city school district has given RAPAH Charter School until tomorrow to provide a plan for fixing fire safety and health code violations or face an immediate shutdown.
"There are fire and safety issues there. In fairness, we wanted to give them an opportunity to tell us what they intend to do," said city school solicitor Ira Weiss.
"If that plan is not sufficiently responsive, the district is prepared to move forward to revoke the charter."
The Renaissance Academy of Pittsburgh Alternative of Hope Charter School or RAPAH in East Liberty is in its second year and has about 255 students. Most pupils live in the city; some are from suburban districts. It is chartered by the city school district but operates under its own board, which hired New York-based Edison Schools to manage it…
A plan is developing to close Denver's lowest-performing school, Manny Martinez Middle School.
The 2-year-old charter school, co-located in West High School, had the worst performance of any school in the district's annual ranking system, which rates schools based on student academic performance and other factors…
The school serves mostly poor, Latino students and had three principals in its first year. Its growth ratings were among the worst in the state, with only a quarter of students reading at grade level.
Manny Martinez is run by EdisonLearning, a New York-based for-profit charter company. [Denver Public Schools chief academic officer Susana] Cordova said Edison has reportedly agreed to the change. Calls to the company Tuesday were made after the close of business.
"It is really disappointing how unable they have been to fulfill our expectations around the quality of opportunities for kids," Cordova said…
DENVER - Denver Police are investigating whether a middle school teacher who allegedly made lewd comments to his students broke the law.
Anjelica Najera, an 8th grader at Manny Martinez Middle School, said the unidentified instructor engaged in sexual talk during a language arts class on Wednesday…
The instructor was in his first day of substitute teaching at Manny Martinez School, a charter school next to West High School. The school is run by Edison Learning, an educational management company. An official with the company admitted the instructor had uttered lewd comments and taken photos of students. He said the teacher will no longer be welcome at the school…
WEST COVINA
- Murky contract language and poor communication with its charter
school's management company is costing West Covina Unified tens of
thousands of dollars in legal fees, according to district documents.
Edison
Learning, Inc. manages the operations at San Jose-Edison Academy, the
district's charter school. WCUSD oversees those operations to ensure it
is in compliance with contract agreements and state law, according to
Superintendent Liliam Castillo.
Rather
than dealing with problems with a quick phone call, the district and
the charter school have been using attorneys for correspondence,
officials said…
With enrollment down, Capitol High this year devised a novel strategy: Pay $100 to anyone who successfully refers a new student. “When your referral enrolls at the school, confirms that you enrolled them, and stays enrolled until October 1, 2010, you will receive a $100 Referral Award,” reads a flier issued by the school. October 1 was the day that the state of Louisiana uses to count the number of students that enroll in all public schools. The count taken that day, as well as one taken Feb. 1, determine about 40 percent of the funding public schools receive. Each child represents about $4,000 in state money. On Friday, the school, now known as Capitol High Academy, had just 319 students enrolled, down 78 from a year ago. The high school, at 1023 N. 23rd St., was taken over by the state in 2008 for chronic low academic performance. The local nonprofit group, 100 Black Men of Baton Rouge, got the charter to run the school instead and hired the for-profit school giant EdisonLearning to run it. In 1999, Capitol High had 1,004 students. It had just 380 students when EdisonLearning arrived and has continued to lose students since. Michael Serpe, a spokesman for EdisonLearning, said that “Circle of Friends Student Referral Program,” is something the New York City-based company has tried sporadically to boost enrollment at some of its schools throughout the country. “There’s nothing that’s as good at getting people’s attention as to offer them something,” Serpe said. Serpe said the flier in Baton Rouge was circulated only among parents and staff, there were no takers and no money was paid out. If there had been takers, the $100 would have been paid out by the company not the school, he said…
Shortly after the School Reform Commission approved the turnover of seven low-performing schools to charter operators, District officials told reporters without fanfare that 16 Philadelphia schools operated by outside education management organizations (EMOs) would revert to District management in the fall. The change will leave just 12 District schools under EMO management. They are operated by five providers - EdisonLearning, Victory Schools, Universal Companies, Foundations Inc., and the University of Pennsylvania - that were among those hired to lead the massive effort to turn around District schools in 2002. At that time, shortly after the "friendly" state takeover of Philadelphia schools, 45 low-performing schools were put under outside management… "The EMO model was flawed from the beginning, which is why we're phasing it out," said Superintendent Arlene Ackerman. Philadelphia drew national attention for its experiment with privatized and mostly for-profit school managers. However, severalresearch studies showed that the academic gains at EMO schools did not exceed those at comparable District-managed schools, though EMOs received hundred of dollars per student in extra funding… The big loser in the continuing phaseout of the EMO model is EdisonLearning, formerly known as Edison Schools Inc. The controversial for-profit school management company was first awarded contracts for 20 schools in 2002 and this year is operating 15. Edison is losing 11 schools…
A week has passed since the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association dissolved the Linear Leadership Academy board, leaving more questions than answers about what is ahead for the Shreveport charter school and who is in charge.
That isn't the only issue.
Who will run the school come August and how this will affect students and staffing at Linear are in question. The contract between New York-based EdisonLearning and the association was terminated because the school is projected to have a deficit of $300,000 to $350,000, according to an official notice from EdisonLearning. The company has not reclaimed operations at the school, and association President Wilbert Williams won't give specifics about the negotiations.
Repeated calls to Williams were not returned, but he has said his organization will not operate Linear…
"The Department of Education and BESE (state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) authorized this charter, and if Linear comes to an agreement with Edison, no action needs to be taken," said Rene Greer, the education department's communications director. "It's a community-driven leadership governance style. If that board or that charter organization feels like there needs to be changes and there are challenges, then they need to address those."
Added Chris Meyer, special adviser to state Superintendent Paul Pastorek, "All we are responsible for is understanding who is running the school. We have not been officially notified that any relationship between Edison and the neighborhood association is over with. We were informed the board governing Linear has been dissolved," and "the MLK Neighborhood Association is putting together a new board at the school…
Decisions made in the coming weeks could affect management at Linear, staffing and whether the school will continue operating under the current charter. School is set to start mid-August.
It took less than 10 minutes for Linear Leadership Academy's board to hear and digest the news Wednesday evening that their services were no longer needed.
Three of the board's six members were notified after hearing a memo from the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association stating the charter's board would be dissolved, effective Wednesday.
"That board that is in place really tries to run everything, and that's the problem," said Wilbert Williams, board chairman of the neighborhood association. "We put the board in place, but we didn't think it would turn out the way it did."
As the charter holder, the neighborhood association has the authority to oust the board, said Williams, who added that the association's five-member board would take over temporarily.
The drastic change came on the same day the charter's education management company, EdisonLearning, terminated its contract.
Depending on whom you ask, you'll get a different answer about why the New York-based company packed up and left town this week.
Projected lack of finances and disagreements in management style and leadership between EdisonLearning and the board are among the varying responses…
In an official notice from EdisonLearning to the neighborhood association, the company projected the school will have a deficit of about $300,000 to $350,000. And under Linear's charter contract, "if the charter holder is unable to cure a budget variance by the last day of the school year" EdisonLearning can terminate the agreement.
State and federal money are the largest funding sources for the public charter school, and the $2.3 million Linear received in Minimum Foundation Program funding from the state was adjusted for a decrease in enrollment. Unless the charter can increase enrollment, which dropped from 273 last fall to 240 at the end of the year, state funding will continue to decrease.
According to the charter school contract, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, EdisonLearning's management fees were set at $400,000 for the 2009-10 year and would increase by $50,000 each year, up to $650,000 for the 2013-14 year…
SHREVEPORT, La -- Shreveport charter school Linear Leadership Academy is hoping to mend its relationship with Edison Learning, the company in charge of administrative duties at the north Shreveport school. The company is threatening to break its contract because of money issues.
Linear expects a $300,000 deficit next year because of declining enrollment and there are concerns Edison might not get full payment. Edison charged $450,000 for its service during the 2009-2010 school year.
Edison has sent notice it will not renew its three-year contract with the school and could pull out before the contract expires in two years.
Linear Principal Bill Minix is confident the school could continue operating without Edison on board.
"Those resources could be used more for the children and at the end of the day this school will receive enough funding through MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) funding and through other federal grants to run the school."
When Linear became a charter school last summer, the MLK Neighborhood Association hired Edison Learning to be in charge of things like setting curriculum, paying teachers and implementing monthly student assessments.
Edison and the school are meeting all week to try to solve their differences.
If Edison decides to go ahead and break its contract, the neighborhood association would have to go to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to get its charter reapproved.
ST. LOUIS • Two kindergartners repeatedly suspended from Confluence Academy Old North Campus in St. Louis did not receive the help from the charter school they needed, according to a complaint filed with the state education department.
The complaint requests that Confluence give the students an evaluation for special education, rather than continue to suspend the children for their behavior problems.
One of the kindergartners had been suspended at least nine times since January for pushing, hitting, running around the classroom, biting, refusing to do work and not following instructions, the complaint says. The other student was suspended five times in the same period for similar behavior.
Both kindergartners have been diagnosed and are being treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. One of the students also has other mental and behavioral disorders, the complaint says.
"They need help," said Lucas Caldwell-McMillan, the attorney who filed the complaint. "They're not able to operate in a normal environment."
Like other public schools, charter schools under state law must provide special education services when students need them. School officials wouldn't comment on particulars of the cases, said Michael Serpe, spokesman for EdisonLearning, which manages the charter school. They are reviewing the complaints and will respond within 10 days, Serpe said.
Diane Crawford, the mother of one of the kindergartners, is looking for another school after being told by Confluence that her child could no longer attend there, she said. Her son spent 30 hours in out-of-school suspension. Now he faces repeating kindergarten, she said.
"This boy's 6 years old," she said. "He needs to be in school."
