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.

YMCA Young Leaders Academy

“Milwaukee educator Ronn Johnson faces new child sex abuse charges.” Journal Sentinel (WI), 8/12/2013

An ex-charter school leader in Milwaukee now faces 23 criminal charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of five children of varying ages from 1991 through last month, according to a revised criminal complaint filed Monday.

New Century Academy

“Hutchinson student sex plea.” KNUJ (MN), 6/19/2013

A former staff member at a Hutchinson charter school accused of having sex with students has pleaded guilty to 2 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

New Discoveries Montessori Academy

“Hutchinson student sex plea.” KNUJ (MN), 6/19/2013

A former staff member at a Hutchinson charter school accused of having sex with students has pleaded guilty to 2 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

Minnesota charter schools (increasing segregation)

"Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate But Equal Era in U.S.” Bloomberg News, 12/22/2011 

At Dugsi Academy, a public school in St. Paul, Minnesota, girls wearing traditional Muslim headscarves and flowing ankle-length skirts study Arabic and Somali. The charter school educates “East African children in the Twin Cities,” its website says. Every student is black.

At Twin Cities German Immersion School, another St. Paul charter, children gather under a map of “Deutschland,” study with interns from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and learn to dance the waltz. Ninety percent of its students are white.

Six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, segregation is growing because of charter schools, privately run public schools that educate 1.8 million U.S. children. While charter-school leaders say programs targeting ethnic groups enrich education, they are isolating low-achievers and damaging diversity, said Myron Orfield, a lawyer and demographer.

“It feels like the Deep South in the days of Jim Crow segregation,” said Orfield, who directs the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Race & Poverty. “When you see an all-white school and an all-black school in the same neighborhood in this day and age, it’s shocking.”

Charter schools are more segregated than traditional public schools, according to a 2010 report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers studied 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 39 metropolitan areas. In particular, higher percentages of charter-school students attend what the report called “racially isolated” schools, where 90 percent or more students are from disadvantaged minority groups...

The atomization of charter schools coincides with growing U.S. diversity. Americans of other races will outnumber whites by 2042, the Census Bureau projects...

Charter schools may specialize in serving a single culture as long as they have open admissions, and there’s no evidence of discrimination, said Russlynn Ali, assistant education secretary for civil rights...

Instead, in the 2009-2010 school year, three quarters of the Minneapolis and St. Paul region’s 127 charter schools were “highly segregated,” according to the University of Minnesota Law School’s race institute. Forty-four percent of schools were 80 percent or more non-white, and 32 percent, mostly white.

“It’s been a great failure that the most segregated schools in Minnesota are charter schools,” said Mindy Greiling, a state representative who lobbied for the charter-school law when she was a member of a suburban school board in the 1980s. “It breaks my heart.”

Segregation is typical nationwide. Seventy percent of black charter-school students across the country attended “racially isolated” schools, twice as many as the share in traditional public schools, according to the report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA...

General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy

“Financial woes force West St. Paul's Vessey Leadership Academy to close.” Pioneer Press (MN), 1/3/2012  

Students from General John Vessey Jr. Leadership Academy are hunting for new schools after their 8-year-old charter high school abruptly closed over Christmas break after running out of money.

The mood was glum at the small West St. Paul school Tuesday, what should have been the first day back, as students hugged and said goodbye. It was their last chance to collect belongings before trying to find a new place to attend classes and finish out the school year.

"It sucks," said Mara Jafar of Richfield, who helped her son Cody clean out his locker Tuesday. "It is not exactly an easy transition in the middle of freshman year."...

School officials cited a combination of factors that forced the closure. Leadership and staffing turnover caused enrollment to fall from more than 100 students in 2007 to about 50 this school year...

Vessey had a small niche. It was known for its Junior ROTC program that primarily served students who didn't fit into a traditional school setting because of behavioral or other issues, said Mary Bright, Vessey executive director...

Spectrum High School

“Teacher-student sexual affair alleged.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN), 10/17/2011

A teacher at an Elk River charter school has been charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct after allegedly admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student.

Matthew C. Ellsworth, 36, of St. Paul, told police that he had sex with the student six to eight times during the summer, according to a Ramsey County District Court complaint filed against him last week.

The charges say he taught the student during her junior year at Spectrum High School and was her mentor for her senior project, which required them to meet during the summer...

He has been charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct because she was 17 and because he was more than two years older than she and in a position of authority.

On Monday, school administrator Vanessta Spark said that Ellsworth was employed at the school from August 2010 to August 2011, "when he was terminated for reasons unrelated to the criminal charges." Because of privacy rules, she said, the school could make no additional comment.

Great River Education Center

“GREC charter school closes.” St. Cloud Times (MN), 7/18/2011

WAITE PARK — A public charter school that has served alternative students in the area since 2000 will not reopen next school year...

The school closed after Novation Education Opportunities decided not to continue as the school’s authorizer, said Matthew Pennertz, who has served as the school’s director since March...

The school has struggled financially, and an effort to recruit students earlier this year was unsuccessful...

Novation Education Opportunities, which is based in Minneapolis and became GREC’s authorizer this year, has oversight of about 11 charter schools, the organization’s website said. Novation provided Great River with an improvement plan that was not met, Pennertz said...

Skills for Tomorrow

LOW ENROLLMENT TO CLOSE DOORS OF ST. PAUL CHARTER SCHOOL / Skills for Tomorrow, a St. Paul school dedicated to teaching job skills, will shut down next month; November 25, 2009; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

A small St. Paul charter high school that was among the state's first charter schools will close its doors next month, its board decided Monday.

Skills for Tomorrow, which has focused on getting students ready to enter the workforce, will shut down on Dec. 18 when students go on holiday break, said school director Claude Maddox.

Financial problems stemming from declining enrollment led to the decision, Maddox said. The school has 81 students, down from 108 six years ago, he said…

The school's board made the "responsible decision" to shut down the school when it could still pay its teachers, meet other financial obligations and cause the least disruption to students, she said. The school has an annual budget of about $1.2 million, mainly from state and federal funding, Maddox said.

Opened in 1994, the school billed itself as the nation's first "school-to-work" charter high school…

Twin Cities (MN) region charter schools (poor performance, segregation issues)

FAILED PROMISES: ASSESSING CHARTER SCHOOLS IN THE TWIN CITIES; November 2008; Institute on Race and Poverty, University of Minnesota Law School 

SECTION IV: CONCLUSION

This report finds that charter schools in the Twin Cities metro have not served the students of the Twin Cities metro well. Charter schools in the region are performing worse than the traditional public schools academically (measured by test scores) and socially (measured by segregation rates). Other choice programs—the Choice is Yours in particular—offer students of color and low-income students access to better-performing, less segregated schools. In some areas where the schools are more racially diverse than their neighborhoods, charter schools segregate white students as well in white-segregated charter schools, acting as an avenue for white flight. Finally, charter school competition hurts the traditional public school system because it has led to ethnic-based niche competition. Traditional public schools in the Twin Cities metro have responded to charter competition either by creating district-sponsored ethno-centric charter schools or by initiating ethno-centric programs and magnet schools within their school districts. Overall, charter school competition in ethnic niches has been particularly detrimental for students of color and low-income students because this type of competition deepens the level of racial and economic segregation in the traditional public school system.

Many of the problems associated with charter schools result from the fact that there is no legal mandate to socially and economically integrate charter schools. Charter schools do not have to be segregated; on the contrary, they should more proactively integrate the region’s students across social and economic fault lines. Currently, in Minnesota charter schools are exempt from the state’s desegregation rule that applies to other public schools. As a result, they do not participate in the state’s School District Integration Revenue Program, which distributed around $79 million in integration revenue funds to 80 school districts in 2005. At a bare minimum, charter schools, which are much more segregated than the region’s traditional public schools, should be subject to the same desegregation and integration standards as traditional public schools. Charters are, after all, public schools and receive tax-payer funding.

However, simply subjecting charter schools to Minnesota’s existing desegregation rule is unlikely to reduce social and economic segregation in these schools because in its current form the rule does not effectively promote integration in the traditional public school system. The main problem with the existing rule is that it is simply intended to increase “racial contact” among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, rather than to actually decrease the extent of racial segregation in schools. 

In the name of promoting “racial contact,” school districts have used integration revenue funds to do a wide array of things ranging from one-day multicultural events to interdistrict magnet schools and cross-district transportation. The majority of these activities have achieved very little to encourage the physical integration of school districts, schools, and classrooms. The purpose of the rule should be changed from merely promoting “racial contact” to unambiguously and proactively supporting the actual integration of school districts, schools, and classrooms.

Skills for Tomorrow

FINANCIAL TROUBLES FORCE CLOSING OF ST. PAUL CHARTER SCHOOL; November 25, 2009; Minnesota Public Radio 

St. Paul, Minn. — A charter school in St. Paul plans to close next month because of financial problems.

Skills for Tomorrow school has continually lost enrollment in recent years, which has only hurt finances, but officials say the governor's shifts in education funding this summer also contributed.

While Skills is the first school to announce its closure since the shifts, advocates for charter schools worry it won't be the last.

Every time a school's enrollment drops, so too does its state funding. That's been the root problem for the Skills for Tomorrow school in recent years. This year, it's down to just 65 students…

Piehl also confirms the problems had been building. The school had reserves it could dip into for cash flow needs, but this year, enrollment dropped too much for reserves to cover, which created the need for credit. Credit, Piehl said, that they couldn't get…

"It's true that the payment shift hurts the charter school more than the district school because the district school has the ability to tax and is a better loan risk," Walsh said. "We are working with some others that are on the bubble, so this might not be the last school you see closed." …

Twin Cities Academy High School

CHARTERS ASK FOR TOO MUCH INFO; SOME CHARTER SCHOOLS SEEK MORE DATA THAN THEY SHOULD ON PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS. OFFICIALS SEE NO SIGN IT IS USED TO DENY ADMISSION; July 10, 2007; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

A St. Paul mom's concern about the application process for her son to apply to a charter school may force many more Minnesota charters to change their student application processes.

The schools are asking for more information than state law allows, according to the Minnesota Department of Education. The information - such as whether students are receiving special education services or their ethnicity - could be used to deny admission.

A perusal of charter school websites by the Star Tribune quickly found a dozen schools asking for details about prospective students that go too far. Officials were quick to point out they have no evidence that schools used this information to deny admission.

Because of the complaint Linda Winsor filed after her son's failed efforts to enroll at Twin Cities Academy High School in St. Paul, the state will review charter school applications…

Winsor's son - who will be in the 11th grade this fall - did not gain entry to Twin Cities Academy High School after its school board decided in May to accept only ninth-grade applicants for 2007-08. But Winsor complained to the state, questioning why the application asked for information such as special education needs and copies of transcripts. The school later also asked students to submit a written essay.

None of that is allowed. And state officials told Twin Cities Academy on May 23 to change its application.

State law prohibits screening, allowing charters to limit enrollment only if they have limited space. Then, schools must institute a lottery.

"The founders of the law did not want screening," said Chas Anderson, deputy state education commissioner. Anderson said schools can collect that information - after they've accepted a student for enrollment.

"Obviously, if you enroll a student, you want to get their educational records from the prior school," she said. "That's important information to have, but it should never be part of the admissions process."…

The only information charter schools should ask for on their applications, Anderson said, is name, age and contact information…

But in a letter to Wynne, the state Education Department said its interpretation of state law prohibits asking for more than name, grade and contact information…

New Voyage Academy

STORMY END FOR CHARTER SCHOOL: NEW VOYAGE ACADEMY HAD FINANCIAL, STAFFING PROBLEMS; March 18, 2006: Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN) 

A St. Paul charter school plagued by management and financial problems was dissolved Friday, leaving about 50 children without a school.

A week in which classes were cancelled for three days so school leaders could resolve their differences culminated Friday in a series of stormy meetings between parents, the school's recently fired director and the board of New Voyage Academy. All but one board member wound up resigning, and the 10-year-old school was shut down…

Representatives from the state Department of Education, St. Paul Public Schools, the Center for School Change and the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools were on hand Friday along with school officials at New Voyage's University Avenue site for a series of meetings, which included consultations with the commissioner of education and the attorney general's office. In the end, the decision was made that the school needed to dissolve immediately.

"(The Minnesota Department of Education) says it is bankrupt," said Mary Chorewycz, executive director of research and development for St. Paul Public Schools, which sponsored New Voyage…

Chorewycz said that recommendation was based on the school's financial problems, unlicensed and inadequate staff, inadequate discipline, poor student performance and unstable leadership.

The school has had seven directors in five years, Chorewycz said. "How can you offer a consistent program for children with that much change?"

The most recent strife among school leaders centered on the frequency of elections for board seats and concerns about potential conflict of interest involving a board member who also was employed by a firm that consults with charter schools…

Martin Hughes Charter School

BUHL SCHOOL LOSES CHARTER, GOES PRIVATE; THE IRON RANGE OPERATION WAS MIRED IN A DISPUTE OVER WHO WAS IN CHARGE; December 4, 2001; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

The Martin Hughes Charter School in Buhl, Minn., embattled for months over whether teachers or managers would call the shots, has lost its charter, and started classes Monday as a private school.

The new Iron Range School still will teach the same kids, those sent by the courts to the Mesabi Academy treatment facility, and offer an almost identical program, officials said. Mesabi Academy, a residential program for troubled youth, is owned by KidsPeace.

But its life as a charter school is over.

"We very much wanted to retain the charter model, which allowed us great financial efficiencies that could be passed on to educate our kids," said [redacted], executive director of Mesabi Academy, in a written statement. "Unfortunately, ongoing governance issues would not allow for the charter to continue."

The school had been granted two extensions to its charter to give it, its teachers and its sponsor, the Mountain Iron-Buhl School District, time to work out a governing pact…

The school now will come under the educational oversight of the Mountain Iron-Buhl district, said Superintendent James Techar. The state Department of Children, Families and Learning will keep an eye on its financial operations. The new private school will receive funding from students' home districts…

Fort Snelling Academy

NEW CHARTER SCHOOL AT FORT SNELLING LOSING KIDS, CASH; May 15, 2001; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

A charter school at Fort Snelling will end the school year early because of financial trouble.

Classes at Fort Snelling Academy will end June 1 instead of June 7 so the school can begin to recoup a $300,000 budget deficit, school officials said Monday. A loss of students and the funding tied to them led to the shortfall.

Fort Snelling Academy opened last fall as a college-prep high school, wooing average students who may not have had college plans but who had the potential for higher education. It opened in September with 264 students and 11 more on a waiting list.

The school has lost about 100 students since opening day. Peter Kordell, chairman of the school's board, said half of those students left because they could not or would not keep up with the rigorous curriculum, and the other half left because the school had a chaotic environment when it first opened.

Fort Snelling Academy received its charter in February 2000 and opened in September without a permanent site or the temporary building at 5000 Bloomington Rd. that it is now using.

For the first month, students were shuffled from one location to another. At one point, they even ate lunch under a large tent…

The school was soon closed.

Dakota Open Charter School

DAKOTA OPEN'S SECONDARY GRADES TO CLOSE; September 16, 1997; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

The state Board of Education on Monday finalized a decision to close the secondary grades of the Dakota Open charter school, located on the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton, Minn.

In a 7-0 vote, the board heeded a strongly worded recommendation from Bob Wedl, commissioner of the state Department of Children, Families and Learning, to end its sponsorship of the school's secondary program. "Most secondary students attend irregularly, and the school operates more like a teen drop-in center than a place where planned education takes place," Wedl wrote.

In June, the board voted to stop sponsoring secondary grades of the K-12 school. At the request of school organizers and Southwest State University, which agreed to sponsor the school in the future, the board held a July hearing to review its earlier decision.

Since then, board members received letters urging them to close the school from two former elementary teachers at the school and a petition from the Lower Sioux Indian Community Council. Board members said that the community had expressed interest in setting up another charter school for Indian students.”

"The best hope that school and those students have is a fresh start," said Jeanne Kling, board vice president.

The second charter school, Eci' Nompa Woonspe', was also closed.

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INDIANS IN MINNESOTA; author Kathy Davis Graves, Elizabeth Ebbot 

…Two Dakota Communities established K-12 state-chartered schools at Prairie Island and in the Lower Sioux (Dakota Open School). Dakota Open School was born of parents’ frustration with the quality of education and the perceived hostility in the regular school. The school faced bureaucratic barriers in receiving special Indian education funds.  In 1997, the state withdrew sponsorship of the secondary program at the Dakota Open School because academic standards were not strictly enforced, and the school closed in May 1998. The school at Prairie Island closed for lack of funding after one year of operation…

Minnesota Business Academy

BUSINESS CHARTER SCHOOL IS CLOSING; THE MINNESOTA BUSINESS ACADEMY IS THE LATEST CHARTER SCHOOL IN THE STATE TO FAIL BECAUSE ENROLLMENT NEVER HIT PROJECTIONS; April 28, 2006; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

Another Minnesota charter school is closing shop, victim of too many expenses and too few students. St. Paul's Minnesota Business Academy will shut down for good at the end of the school year.

One of the state's highest-profile charter schools opened to much fanfare six years ago. Its demise dramatizes the fate that befalls many charter schools. While the vast majority of the state's 123 charters are thriving, others struggle on, believing they'll attract more kids than the realities of the market allow - until it's too late…

The school had the backing of then St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, city business leaders and former Lt. Gov. Joanne Benson, who once served as MBA's chief education officer. It moved into the former Science Museum of Minnesota building in 2000.

But refurbishing the old museum into a high school cost nearly $10 million, debt that required an enrollment of 440 to cover costs. It never came close, said Executive Director Jerry Neff. Last summer, the school persuaded St. Paul to forgive half its debt. It wasn't enough. It still needed 315 pupils this year to meet its budget. In September, 240 showed up. Currently, 188 students are enrolled and 61 will graduate in June, Neff said.

School officials told students about the closing Thursday. Many were crushed…

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THE BUSINESS MODEL FAILS THE MINNESOTA BUSINESS ACADEMY; Apr. 27 2006; City Pages (Minneapolis, MN) 

Last summer, the St. Paul City Council voted to forgive a $750,000 loan to the Minnesota Business Academy, an experimental charter school that enjoyed the backing of many prominent politicians and business people. At the time, there was considerable skepticism voiced over the bail out. The school--which aimed to immerse its "associates" in the business culture--had struggled financially from its inception six years ago, largely because of the more than $9 million it expended on start up costs.

After the City Council came to the rescue, MBA executive director Jerry Neff expressed optimism about the future, telling worried parents, "We're here to stay." Some former students, staffers and others affiliated with the school were far less sanguine about the prospects. "I would not recommend this school to anyone," former MBA board chair Kathy Mirsch told City Pages at the time. "I think it's living on borrowed time."

As it turned out, Mirsch had the better crystal ball. Last night, the MBA board voted to shutter the operation at the end of the current school year. The main reason: the school could not consistently enroll enough students. Executive director Neff attributed the enrollment woes in part to media coverage of the MBA's financial difficulties.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Q: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RUN A SCHOOL LIKE A BUSINESS? A: YOU GO BROKE.-THE STUDENTS LEARNED HOW TO SIT IN CUBICLES AND WRITE MEMOS. THE STAFF LEARNED HOW TO ASK FOR A BAILOUT; June 22, 2005; City Pages (Minneapolis, MN) 

At a time when public schools all over the state have been under siege, the Minnesota Business Academy has enjoyed a valuable perk: vocal support from some of the state's most prominent corporations, business people, and politicians. Former Lt. Governor Joanne Benson served as the chief education officer for four years. Governor Tim Pawlenty doled out praise when the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce became the school's official sponsor last year. And a virtual who's-who of big corporations--Xcel Energy, General Mills, Ecolab--have lent their support, offering student internships and sending company officers to serve on its board…

Granted, the school has had its share of troubles, a fact that no one denies. Since it opened five years ago in the former Science Museum building in downtown St. Paul, the fledgling charter program has been saddled with debt. In part, this is because the MBA has struggled to attract students: After taking out loans to renovate the building, it needed to attract at least 440 pupils to cover its debts. But the school never got close. In 2003, nearly a quarter of the student body dropped out or was expelled. Throughout its history, the MBA has endured ceaseless staff turnover.

Yet two weeks ago, when the Minnesota Business Academy made its latest pitch for help, supporters painted a portrait of an institution on the verge of turning its troubles around. With staffers, students, and parents packing St. Paul City Hall, the City Council--by a 5-2 margin--agreed to accept the MBA's bailout proposal. That decision wiped the slate clean on $750,000 owed to the city (from a $1 million start-up loan) and it paved the way for the refinancing of about $10 million in other debts…

But in the view of some of the school's critics--including a number of former students, teachers, board members, and parents--the city's actions did little more than forestall the inevitable: the shuttering of a school that they say has floundered since the day it opened its doors. The place they describe is not the bold alternative and educational innovator touted by politicians and corporate PR officers.

Laura Mirsch, who graduated from the school with honors in 2004, says the MBA's problems were never strictly financial. She thinks arrogance and inexperience on the part of some of the MBA's founders played a large role, too. "Basically, it was run by a bunch of businesspeople who thought they knew more about education than public educators," Mirsch says.

When Mirsch arrived as a freshman, she recalls, the students were each shown to a personal cubicle with a computer and a phone. The idea--that kids would learn well in a businesslike setting--didn't mesh with the reality of lightly supervised 14-year-olds left to their own devices. "It was total bedlam," Mirsch remembers. "You were supposed to do your work in the cube, but a lot of the kids were making prank calls and screwing around all the time."

The cubicles didn't last long. In fact, change has been the one constant at MBA. Heavy student and staff turnover included three executive directors--i.e., principals--in five years. According to Neff, just three of the school's original twelve teachers remain on staff…

Kathy Mirsch--a former chair of the MBA board, a volunteer coach, and the mother of Laura--says she found herself frustrated during her years of involvement with the school. She blames many of the school's failings on a "totally unrealistic" business plan. "[The founders] had this vision of what they thought would happened," she says. "They thought a bunch of well-behaved, highly motivated kids were going to come to the school and work in cubicles and be self-motivated and self-directed. It was ridiculous."…

Success Academy (two campuses)

CHARTER SCHOOL LEFT $1.2 MILLION DEBT; SUCCESS ACADEMY IN ST. PAUL LEFT A TRAIL OF FINANCIAL DEBRIS, AN AUDITOR'S REPORT FOUND; December 30, 2000; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

Before losing its charter and closing its doors last spring, the Success Academy charter school in St. Paul racked up more than $1.2 million in debt, according to an independent auditor's report filed with the state Friday.

The academy, which operated two sites serving almost 600 elementary-school children, left a trail of financial debris in its wake. The list of debtors includes staff members, who are owed $301,196 in salary and related expenses; vendors, who are owed $194,000, and taxpayers…

The K-6 school grew rapidly, but not as quickly as the enrollment projections it submitted to the state…

Of the $742,726 owed to taxpayers, $608,000 resulted from the school overstating its enrollment and failing to meet the state's expectations for its extended-year program. In addition, the St. Paul School District's position is that it overpaid the school for special-education costs by $134,000. However, Success Academy officials contest the state and district's claims and will appeal, according to the report…

…auditors found a number of irregularities and highlighted the limitations of their review in their cover letter to the association:

"We were unable to verify the completeness or accuracy of the liability balances as the School did not maintain office staff or an accounting function after July 2000. Also, we were unable to obtain written representations from management of the School as required by auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America," the letter says.

Officials with the state Department of Children, Families and Learning are talking with staff members at the attorney general's office about seeking reimbursement from the now-defunct school. But Katie Shea, the department's director of finance and management services, isn't optimistic about recovering the money.

"There's no clear remedy as far as we can tell," she said, adding that the charter-school law did not anticipate management-company arrangements such as Success Academy's.

Higher Ground Academy

CHARTER SCHOOL GETS MILLIONS IN TAX MONEY WITH UNLICENSED TEACHERS; March 30, 2011; KSTP-TV news broadcast (St. Paul, MN) 

At the top of the list of unlicensed teachers we found the name of the guy in charge, school principal Dr. Samuel Yigzaw. He told us he had been just too busy to get his teaching license this year, but is planning to do it for next school year. Dr. Yigzaw did admit that he knew of one unlicensed teacher on his staff of 34 faculty members, other than himself. When I asked him about the other two teachers we found, he said one fo [sic] them really wasn't a teacher, even though the school had her listed as such. Dr. Yigzaw told us she really was a paraprofessional who assisted teachers, but did not actually teach a class. The last teacher on our list was unfamiliar, at first, to Dr. Yigzaw. Then, he told us he remembered she was a regular substitute in his classroom. But, state records indicate that teacher is also unlicensed.

The Minnesota Department of Education reviewed our information and told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that it would start an investigation into the school's compliance beginning Wednesday morning.

Chiron Charter School

FORMER CHARTER SCHOOL OFFICIAL FACES 7 FELONY CHARGES; September 6, 2006; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

The former top administrator at a defunct downtown Minneapolis charter school has been charged with seven felony counts of misusing more than $300,000 in public money.

Kristin Laxton was accused of overreporting the number of students to bring the school extra money, using federal grants for purposes outside the law, and paying herself more salary and reimbursement than she was due.

The Hennepin County complaint filed late last week is one of the largest theft cases made against a Minnesota charter school. It accuses Laxton of three counts of theft, two counts of forgery and two counts of making false complaints to a public body. Much of the complaint is based on an investigation conducted by the state auditor's office, which sent its report to the county last fall under its responsibility to forward any matters involving misbehavior by public officials…

According to the complaint, the school was paid $238,170 more than it was due for the 2004-05 school year. The complaint alleges that Laxton inflated student counts both by reporting students whom auditors couldn't find on attendance logs and by reporting that students attended for longer than they did…

The redacted version of the auditor's report, made public late last month, suggests potential culpability by others for amounts they were paid for paychecks or other reimbursement to which they were not entitled. Peter Cahill, deputy county attorney, said the investigation into Chiron is continuing. The state's worst charter school scam involved Right Step Academy. A federal judge recently sentenced founders William and Shirley Pierce to prison time and more than $489,000 in restitution of state aid for their role in the fraud.

The report issued by the Minnesota State Auditor is @ http://www.osa.state.mn.us/reports/spi/2006/chiron_06_report.pdf