MANATEE COUNTY -- About 100 Manatee County students will need to find a new school for next year.After 13 years, the Bradenton Charter School is closing.Karen Carpenter Chair of the Manatee County School board said the school is closing because the school failed to meet standards particularly in the area of curriculum and governance.
A state tally showing more than 53,000 students on charter school waiting lists is overstating demand, according to a Globe review of state data.The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in tallying the waiting lists statewide and for many individual communities, including Boston, frequently counts the same students more than once.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis report contains the results of our audit of Magnolia Science Academy –Charter Schools (“MSA Schools”). The MSA Schools referred to in this audit were the Magnolia Science Academy-1, Magnolia Science Academy-2 and Magnolia Science Academy-3. The MSA Schools are part of twelve Magnolia Public Schools (MPS) operated by the Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation (MERF)...Our audit found that the MSA Schools were not in full compliance with the selected provisions, standards and procedures outlined in their respective Charter Agreements. We also noted that the MSA Schools needed to strengthen their internal control systems and their oversight of fiscal and financial operations.
ADELANTO—The Adelanto School District has revoked the Adelanto Charter Academy’s charter, based on a laundry list of operational shortcomings...While charter schools are by law non-profit entities, it appears that those involved with the school in some cases formed for-profit companies that were devoted to providing the charter academy with materials, ranging from furniture to computers to visual aids to books to writing materials that were sold at inflated prices.
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...
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.
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.
The Bethlehem Area School Board tonight accepted the voluntary surrender of the charter of a city-based charter school that the board spent months trying to shut down.Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley spent months fighting charter revocation proceedings initiated by the Bethlehem Area and Allentown school districts.But then in October the charter school announced "with profound sorrow" that it plans to shut its doors Jan. 25, which marks the end of the first marking period for the sending districts. A revocation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29 was canceled in light of the voluntary surrender of the charter...
Already under two investigations, Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley is facing mounting financial pressure that has led trustees to raise the specter of closing the school, which serves mostly poor children with learning, emotional and physical disabilities.Records obtained by The Morning Call show money issues led the Bethlehem school to stop offering legally mandated speech therapy while nearly $9,500 in food vendor bills have gone unpaid and part of a federal education grant was used to pay a utility bill.More pressing, the school can no longer afford to pay more than $17,000 in monthly rent and maintenance costs at its building on Fourth Avenue in Bethlehem and is looking for cheaper quarters in Allentown, records and interviews show. The Bethlehem building is for sale.In a March 24 email on moving, board President Joyce Thompson wrote that she and another trustee "were talking about the possibility of having to close the school."...
The top administrator of a troubled Bethlehem charter school resigned Wednesday, alleging that school officials continue to mismanage tax dollars even as two local school districts investigate its finances and loss of a state license to provide students with mental health care.In her resignation letter, Nancy Egan, chief executive officer of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley since 2010, said the board of trustees and other administrators have undermined her attempts to correct years of fiscal mismanagement...
State officials have offered to help the Allentown and Bethlehem Area school districts with their joint investigation of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley.Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said Friday his staff "received a very supportive call" from the Pennsylvania Department of Education concerning Vitalistic. He said the state has offered to help the districts analyze the charter's financial and special education records...The districts' investigation stems from a story in The Morning Call on Nov. 27 that examined Vitalistic's finances and its loss of a state license that served as the cornerstone of its chartered mission to provide poor students with intensive mental health therapy.Using public records and interviews with state and Vitalistic sources, the newspaper found Vitalistic had improperly lent taxpayer money to its nonprofit sister school, had problems documenting students' special education services, and had repeat violations of its licensed mental health program. Vitalistic billed the state for more than $200,000 in services from the preschool and charter school that auditors could not determine if children and their families had received...The newspaper's investigation found Vitalistic's board of trustees offered little to no oversight of those funds or management decisions. The story showed Vitalistic had problems administering and documenting whether students received services under a welfare department license to provide outpatient partial hospitalization care, according to audits conducted by Magellan Behavioral Health Inc., a Connecticut-based private managed care company that monitors treatment for people on Medicaid with mental health issues...The state auditor general's office is also investigating Vitalistic.
When Camden's LEAP Academy University Charter School compelled its new food-service management company to retain the school's executive chef and give him a $24,000 raise, LEAP also had to pay a $151,428 penalty to its previous vendor, documents show.Including Michele Pastorello's new $95,000 salary, LEAP has spent nearly $250,000 this school year to keep him employed as executive chef. The position typically pays about $40,000, according to industry experts.Pastorello is the live-in boyfriend of LEAP founder and board chairwoman Gloria Bonilla-Santiago. His raise, as well as the fee paid to the previous management company, Aramark, now are under review by the school's board of trustees...
In addition to LEAP Academy University Charter School’s financial woes, the school has been hit was a lawsuit alleging misappropriation of school and scholarship money.The lawsuit filed in January by LEAP employee Mark Paoli, who served as the school facilities manager for 12 years before being demoted in May, alleges LEAP founder and board chair Gloria Bonilla-Santiago “routinely demanded that he perform work on her home while on LEAP Academy time and using LEAP Academy, tools, equipment and supplies...”Bonilla-Santiago denied all allegations in a statement...Founded in 1997, LEAP is one of Camden's more prominent charter schools, with a large downtown campus. In August, LEAP will open a new 60-student high school that will focus on science, technology, engineering, and math, and a new K-3 school. LEAP Lower School (K-6) and LEAP Upper School (7-12) are one block apart on Cooper Street.But the school has recently faced scrutiny from the state for mismanagement of federal money. And just last month, it was publicly reported that LEAP (as well as Camden Pride Charter School) had lost its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2010 for failure to file tax forms for three consecutive years...
LEAP Academy University Charter School has given up a costly battle over enrollment practices that netted out-of-state basketball players and ran afoul of state law. And the coach at the heart of the recruitment scandal will not return in September, according to a report in the Courier Post.State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy had found LEAP violated laws that govern charter programs by giving admissions preference to out-of-state athletes over Camden students.The charter school's trustees decided in May not to appeal Davy's ruling to the state Appellate Division. The Rutgers-based program spent nearly $55,000 on the legal fight.
AUSTIN - State education officials have threatened to cut off funding for a troubled Fort Worth charter school unless its owner submits a detailed financial audit within 30 days.
The letter warning of the possible loss of state funding is the latest problem for Theresa B. Lee Academy of Fort Worth, a charter school already under state oversight because of poor performance ratings and cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
The latest warning also applies to a sister campus in Houston, Jesse Jackson Academy. Funding will be suspended if the independent audit for both schools is not delivered to the Texas Education Agency this month by the owner and superintendent of the two schools, Jesse W. Jackson of Houston…
"We have to be able to ensure that state funds are being spent appropriately, and we have given them a very reasonable amount of time to produce this audit," said Debbie Ratcliffe of the TEA. She said the audit was originally due on Jan. 28 and that three notices have been sent.
Lee Academy, located in a gray storefront building in East Fort Worth, has had a state conservator overseeing its operations since the fall of 2007 after the school was cited for cheating on the TAKS and hit with an "academically unacceptable" rating from the state…
A financial report earlier this year found that the charter school owes the state more than $500,000 for overstating its student enrollment last year and for collecting state money for special education services that students never received…
Some teachers at the school were not paid at the end of the last school year in June and were told to file for unemployment benefits, she said. Even a check the school sent to Dr. Francois as payment for her services bounced.
FORT WORTH — State officials ordered Theresa B. Lee Academy charter school to close by tomorrow, state officials said. The charter school, located on East Lancaster Avenue, failed to submit required financial audits and been monitored by the state for cheating on state tests in 2005.
Earlier this month, the school lost state funding for failure to submit financial audits, which public schools are required to do annually.
Officials said representatives from the Region XI Education Service Center, which serves and helps monitor Tarrant County area schools, arrived at the school Nov. 7 to find that the school was not in session.
“That was unacceptable to the commissioner,” TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.
Jesse Jackson, who also oversees Lee’s parent company Youth for Education and Success, based in Houston, could not be reached for comment. He has not returned media calls in recent months. Lee academy was receiving funding for about 112 students.
The state asked YES officials to submit a 2005-06 by Sept. 29 and failed to do so. The state has revoked or removed 41 charters since allowing such schools in 1995.
An inexperienced science teacher with no textbooks or lab equipment. Special education students who get no special attention. Bills paid late or not at all.
Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school discovered cheating on 2005 TAKS tests, is failing in virtually every regard, according to state records.
Yet it remains open…
"This school is woefully inadequate to provide even a marginal education," the conservator, Carol Francois, concluded in one report. "The staff, for the most part, is poorly qualified, poorly trained, and poorly managed."
Jesse W. Jackson, the school's superintendent and owner, did not respond to requests for comment this week.
What does it take to shut down a school like this? Some critics say TEA needs tougher state laws to make it easier to sever the contract between a failing charter school and the state.
Some state efforts to shut down charters languish in court for years.
"I think it's very obvious that the bad charters need to be closed down and the good charters need to be emulated, and it's not as easy as it sounds," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano…
The audit, released last month, found that Lee didn't keep required attendance records for most of the 2006-07 school year and collected state money for special education services that students never received. The state says Lee must repay $516,388…
…monthly reports to TEA describe a school where teachers drilled students in how to take tests, but spent little time teaching the subject matter.
One report mentions three learning-disabled students who said they didn't receive extra academic help the law allows for them. They didn't even know they're supposed to get it.
Another report documents an untrained but eager science teacher begging for biology textbooks and lab equipment only to have her bosses tell her to find and use whatever her predecessor left behind.
Teachers haven't been paid for May, Dr. Francois said. Special education consultants said their invoices were paid late, if at all. A $3,446 check to Dr. Francois bounced…
In 2006, Dr. Jackson received $144,000 as superintendent of Lee and Jackson academies. Arthurlene Jackson, his wife and assistant superintendent, received $125,000, according to IRS records…
PROBLEMS:•A state investigation found that educators helped students cheat on 2005 TAKS tests.•An audit of the 2006-07 school year found that Lee failed to keep required attendance records and collected state money for special education and other services students never received. Lee must repay the state $516,388.•In 2006-07, Lee reported an average attendance of 252 students. In 2007-08, with a state conservator in charge, attendance dropped to 115 students. Because schools receive state dollars based largely on attendance, Lee's annual state funding dropped from about $1.6 million to about $750,000.•Students taking different electives, from social studies to physical education, were put in the same class with the same teacher.•Classroom activities often consisted mostly of rote drills, reading aloud and filling out worksheets.•A special education teacher did not always show up when she was supposed to.•Only four students in the entire school passed the math TAKS and only three passed the science TAKS, based on preliminary 2008 scores.
State officials announced punishments for three schools Tuesday, including a Fort Worth charter school that cheated on TAKS tests and may have inflated attendance figures.
At Theresa B. Lee Academy in Fort Worth, the Texas Education Agency will assign an official to oversee student testing and to help with a state audit of the school's attendance records, among other duties. Those steps allow the school to stay open this year…
[Robert Scott, the TEA's acting commissioner] said the punishment Theresa B. Lee received is about as severe as possible. The state reported in June that investigators had found that school officials doctored student answer sheets, gave students answers and claimed to have lost key records in a "flood" that never happened.
Investigators had wanted to interview students who were listed on the attendance rolls but, according to Lee officials, were absent or had withdrawn from school.
Those aren't Lee's only troubles. The school has also received the state's lowest academic rating of "unacceptable" the last two years. If that pattern continues, Mr. Scott said, he'll consider closing the school next year…
Lake Havasu Charter School is closing after 16 years because officials failed to submit paperwork by the deadline to continue operation.
Principal Patricia Hauchrog said the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools e-mailed the charter-renewal notification in February 2010, but the administration never received the notice.
“We did not get the e-mail,” Hauchrog said. “Nor did they pick up the phone and say, ‘Why didn’t you respond to the e-mail?’ I figured the state would contact us. (The e-mail’s) not there.”
School officials then received a certified letter in July 2010, stating they missed the May 2010 renewal deadline and their charter would expire this August.
“It’s disheartening,” Hauchrog said. “Kids are all over the board (emotionally).”…
Hauchrog wrote a letter dated Oct. 28, 2010, to the state board, explaining a part-time employee had monitored incoming e-mails. Once the employee retired, the e-mails were supposed to be forwarded to an administrative assistant’s e-mail account.
“Human error and the need to be financially conservative is the cause for this dilemma,” the letter states.
Hauchrog said she knew the deadline was approaching, but was waiting to receive the state notification.
She said the first meeting they could be placed on the state agenda was in January. At the meeting, board members did not vote to let the school still submit its application.
Richard Tatham, who is the charter school’s representative on file for the state, said he didn’t think there would be “too much of a problem” convincing the state board to allow the submission past deadline. Tatham also pastors the Stonebridge Christian Fellowship Church, which is located on the same property as the school off Jamaica Boulevard.
“We feel God is involved in the overall,” Tatham said. “And that some good things can happen.”…
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Attendance has been so good at some of Ohio's Internet charter schools that the state is wondering if the numbers are too good to be true.
The Ohio Department of Education plans to give attendance figures a second look after 20 of the schools - state-funded public schools where students do work online from home or other sites - reported perfect attendance for the last school year. Others had rates that were nearly perfect.
At least two schools, including Ohio's biggest, admit that they don't count students expelled for being absent for at least 21 days.
"This sounds like just another way that charter schools are gaming the system," said Lisa Zellner, spokeswoman for the Ohio Federation of Teachers. "What does this do for the student? The point is to be educating these kids, giving them what they need."…
The state's largest Internet charter school, the 6,664-student Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, has reported perfect attendance for the past three school years…
More than 30 publicly funded virtual charter schools have launched during the past five years, and parents have largely been pleased with the results.
But the alleged mismanagement of two academies run by for-profit companies is prompting states to request more regulatory authority.
Educators say the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) in Ohio and Einstein Academy in Pennsylvania, both of which are run by private companies, have ignored numerous academic guidelines while operating with questionable accounting practices…
[Ohio Federation of Teachers] president Tom Mooney said ECOT is "really being run by Bozo and Clarabell," claiming that management company Altair Learning Management had no background in education or technology. However, Mooney said they were "shrewd enough to smell a really good opportunity."…
The audit, which was released in April, showed that the company overcharged the state by $1.65 million for teaching hours it could not substantiate, and that $500,000 worth of computer equipment given to students who left the program were not recovered.
The auditor's office said ECOT's net loss of $3.8 million during the school year "causes substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
ECOT recently agreed to pay back $1.6 million to Ohio's department of education over the next three years. ECOT superintendent Jeffrey P. Forster, who saw 30 percent of his students leave the program during its first year, said that because of cost cutting, the academy is on solid financial footing…
The federation also cites a recent charter granted directly to Akron "industrialist" David Brennan's White Hat Management company instead of to a nonprofit as required by state law.
Mooney said that when legislators passed the charter school law, they never envisioned cyber schools and "did not set up appropriate guidelines for oversight."…
LAND O'LAKES - Pasco County schools superintendent Heather Fiorentino has asked for a criminal investigation into the Language Academy after someone told district officials that there had been embezzlement at the charter school, she said.
"It's my job to make sure that they're accountable to the public and follow the contract," Fiorentino said Monday.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is having "ongoing discussions" with school district officials in an effort to determine whether there was a crime - or possibly bad accounting - at the school.
"We're still determining what direction we need to go," sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said.
An audit of the bilingual school is expected to come out later this month. Fiorentino believes the school is about $150,000 in debt and said as much as $500,000 may be unaccounted for from the tenure of the academy's founder and former principal, the Rev. Gary Carson.
Carson resigned as the charter school's principal in March 2004, citing the demands of dealing with a family illness and heading the Westminster Presbyterian Church as its pastor.
During its first two years, the Language Academy was cited twice in school district audits for not complying with financial, staffing and curriculum rules. The school also struggled to keep balanced bank accounts and failed to properly document some purchases…
But school district officials and a former church treasurer say the problems at the Language Academy ran much deeper than unbalanced checkbooks.
"A lot of things going on at the school shouldn't have been going on, in terms of administration," former church treasurer Walter Sellers said.
Sellers said that Carson was recently "defrocked," or stripped of his ministerial duties, for seven years by the Presbytery of Tampa Bay…
AVON — As Stone Creek Elementary opened its doors to Eagle County kids last fall, its founder was stealing money from the struggling charter school checking account, Avon police say.
Bill Hammer was arrested Thursday in Jefferson County, accused of stealing $68,539 from Stone Creek to help his two failing businesses and to pay off a lawsuit to the Vail Resorts Development Corporation, police say.
Police had issued an arrest warrant, but couldn’t find him locally. Soon after the news broke on the Vail Daily’s Web site, a reader called police with a tip on his whereabouts. Avon police then called the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, who found him in Evergreen.
The theft is a class three felony and could put Hammer in prison for four to 12 years if convicted. His bond is set at $75,000, and he’ll be given a court date to appear in Eagle County.
The news is upsetting — but not necessarily shocking — to the people still running Stone Creek. Earlier this year, the school board disclosed a series of financial problems that had gone unchecked since the school opened and put the school behind in bills. Expenses outpaced the money coming in, and the school board was soon looking a giant debt in the eye…
Police were approached by newly elected members of the Stone Creek Board of Directors in February who were concerned about discrepancies they discovered in the school’s financial records.
Treasurer Kevin Randel said he and other board members weren’t prepared for the mess they found in the books. The records were scattered, incomplete and didn’t quite add up.
They also found a slew of unaccounted for funds — checks written without matching receipts or invoices adding up to more than $68,000…
Checks written directly from Stone Creek’s account were found deposited in Hammer’s personal business accounts for Noel, a Christmas shop in Beaver Creek, and the Oregon Country Tree Farm, a business in Oregon, Arnold said.
Both those businesses were failing, Arnold said. “The books showed he had $182,000 in losses in his businesses. He was losing money in both.”
Hammer was also behind on rent at his shop in Beaver Creek, and Vail Resorts Development Corporation sued him. Hammer paid them off, but with Stone Creek money, Arnold said.
“He wrote a check to Wells Fargo, then they made it a cashier’s check, and when he paid off Vail Resorts, they never knew where the money was coming from,” Arnold said. “The school didn’t realize where the money went because the check was made to Wells Fargo.” …
The school overestimated its enrollment numbers, which means it received more state funding per student than it should have, according to Randy DeHoff, executive director for the Colorado Charter School Institute.
At first, Stone Creek received money for 250 kids, while only 151 were actually enrolled. Stone Creek was denied state funding for December and had its funding severely cut through May to make up the money…
A group of angry parents and school administrators gathered today to protest the state's closing of their charter school here, and vowed to fight to keep the school open.
The Paterson Charter School for Urban Leadership had been on probation since February. Last week, the state education commissioner, William L. Librera, revoked the school's charter, citing problems with faulty criminal-background checks for employees and administrative accounting difficulties.
''The information that the school has submitted has not met the desired level of detail and/or it has not addressed all of the information and action items requested to ensure compliance and the operation's soundness,'' Mr. Librera wrote…
This is the second time in two years that a charter school in Paterson has closed, according to state officials. The first, Alexander Hamilton Charter School, was open for one year before financial and administrative problems caused state officials to shut it down.
The Paterson Charter School for Urban Leadership opened in 2000, and state officials said it had been operating with a large deficit. An investigation into the school by the Department of Education found that more than 75 percent of the school's employees had not undergone criminal background checks, and two employees with disqualifying convictions were subsequently removed…
Two of New Jersey’s most well-established charter schools are on probation and a third was warned to improve its student test scores or face a shut down, state education officials said today.
Trenton Community Charter School and University Academy Charter School in Jersey City were placed on 90-day probation last week and given a long list of problems discovered during a recent state review.
The deficiencies ranged from low student test scores and improperly locked classrooms to inadequate lesson plans and sloppy record keeping…
Jersey City Community Charter School, one of the state’s original charters, was issued a less-severe warning letter citing students’ poor test scores. It has been labeled a "school in need of improvement" by the state…
The warnings come as New Jersey is preparing to add to its 73 current charter schools. Earlier this year, Gov. Chris Christie approved a record 23 new charters and announced plans to simplify the process of applying to open new schools.
Under New Jersey law, charter schools are monitored by the state and may receive warning letters or 90-day probations if problems are found. The education commissioner has the option of issuing a second 90-day probation, if needed. If conditions still do not improve, the state can shut down the school…
Two of New Jersey’s most well-established charter schools are on probation and a third was warned to improve its student test scores or face a shut down, state education officials said today.
Trenton Community Charter School and University Academy Charter School in Jersey City were placed on 90-day probation last week and given a long list of problems discovered during a recent state review.
The deficiencies ranged from low student test scores and improperly locked classrooms to inadequate lesson plans and sloppy record keeping…
Jersey City Community Charter School, one of the state’s original charters, was issued a less-severe warning letter citing students’ poor test scores. It has been labeled a "school in need of improvement" by the state…
The warnings come as New Jersey is preparing to add to its 73 current charter schools. Earlier this year, Gov. Chris Christie approved a record 23 new charters and announced plans to simplify the process of applying to open new schools.
Under New Jersey law, charter schools are monitored by the state and may receive warning letters or 90-day probations if problems are found. The education commissioner has the option of issuing a second 90-day probation, if needed. If conditions still do not improve, the state can shut down the school…
The Ohio State Auditor issued the following news release:
Auditor of State Betty Montgomery today released a special audit of the charter school Imani Institute Leadership School in Cleveland. The audit names Donna Johnson, superintendent of the school, in findings for recovery totaling $341,166.
"The Imani Institute is, unfortunately, a poster child for poorly run community schools," said Montgomery. "From lack of bookkeeping to improper purchases, this school was clearly not run in a way that places emphasis on educating our children."
Imani closed at the end of June 2005 due to lack of a sponsor. During the charter school's regular audit for the 2003 fiscal year, auditors identified several questionable debit card purchases such as restaurant charges and gasoline and clothing purchases. Further, school officials were unable to provide revenue and expense records. Montgomery's office declared the school "unauditable" for the 2003 fiscal year. Montgomery then opened a special audit to further investigate.
The special audit reviewed three procedures; review of revenues, review of expenditures and a review of the extended period of July 1, 2003 through October 31, 2005. The entire audit encompassed January 1, 2001 through October 31, 2005.
Throughout the special audit, Imani officials failed to provide receipt books or revenue and expense ledgers. Montgomery was forced to subpoena records from Imani's financial institutions in order to obtain information on Imani bank accounts. With considerable time and effort, auditors used the bank information to create a history of all of Imani's revenue and expenditures.
Ultimately, a total of $341,166 in findings for recovery was issued against Superintendent Donna Johnson including:
* $1,184 for money collected but unaccounted for.* $187,506 for checks issued to cash and unaccounted for.* $44,637 for cash unaccounted for.* $17,559 for general expenditures unrelated to operations of a community school (home warranties, home installation of postage machines and computers, meals at restaurants, furniture, etc.).* $7,856 for insufficient funds fees.* $25,859 for exceeding Donna Johnson's authorized payroll. Montgomery's office has notified the IRS because Johnson's W-2 forms were understated.* $6,724 for unauthorized reimbursements for expenditures unrelated to operations of a community school (gas, airfare, plants, and out of state hotel charges).* $7,867 for ATM withdrawals (Parliamentarian Ernest Johnson also named in these findings for recovery).* $32,843 for debit transactions (Parliamentarian Ernest Johnson also named in these findings for recovery).* $4,840 for overpayment of loan transactions. (Marcus Wright of AHRMS Management Company also named in this finding for recovery).* $4,291 for consultant payments (Consultant Rashid Alaji also named in this finding for recovery).
Montgomery also issued questioned costs in the amount of $482,159. Auditors could not locate voucher packages, checks, reports and other supporting documentation related to various federal grants received in fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003. Further, Imani could not account for the money spent from grant funds and therefore could not verify funds spent were for the purpose of the grants.
Imani Institute Leadership School's contract expired June 30, 2005. It was ineligible to reopen because it was unable to engage a new sponsor. The school opened in 2000.
In April of 2005, the San Diego City School District recommended the approval of a charter school to be opened by Donna Johnson in California. Her new school opened in September 2005 and closed in November 2005. In October 2006, Ms. Johnson surrendered the school's charter. For informational purposes, Auditor Montgomery sent a copy of her special audit to the California Department of Education and to the San Diego City School District.
As is routine with audits containing findings for recovery, a copy of the special audit will be sent to the local prosecutor and the Attorney General's office. A full copy of the special audit report is available online at: www.auditor.state.oh.us.
With one phone call to Ohio's state auditor – or simply a Google search – the San Diego Unified School District could have learned that Donna Johnson, seeking a charter for the Jola Community School in Mount Hope, had just left a long record of financial chaos in her operation of the Imani Institute Leadership School, her previous charter school in Cleveland.
So chaotic a record for so long, in fact, that Ohio's state auditor, already skeptical of Johnson, was conducting a special audit. So chaotic for so long that even minimal due diligence should have kept San Diego officials from dismissing questions about Johnson's performance in Cleveland as irrelevant to San Diego.
Ohio Auditor Betty Montgomery has now issued the special audit. It finds public money meant for Imani was spent for pricey women's apparel and Luther Vandross concert tickets. It finds that throughout Imani's operation Johnson ignored generally accepted accounting principles and Ohio financial reporting requirements. It finds that Johnson owes Ohio $341,156, and cannot account for $482,159 in federal grant money.
Now Johnson owes the San Diego district $162,516 in funding for Jola, which folded in fall 2005 after two months' operation for lack of students, facilities and money. It has yet to close its financial books to the district's satisfaction.
This should have come as no surprise, if it had to come at all. Our two-minute call to State Auditor Montgomery and a one-minute search of her Web site turned up an audit report posted in November 2003 noting that the financial statements Johnson provided for Imani “omit all disclosures required by generally accepted accounting principles” and listing eight “material weaknesses” in Imani's accounting.
Either the San Diego district's vetting process is wholly inadequate or the district staff is far too gullible. Whichever, it needs fixing, now.
