Triad Math and Science Academy

“Questions loom about group proposing Raleigh charter school.” Independent Weekly (NC), 1/25/2012,

An accomplished charter school in Greensboro is eyeing the former Exploris Middle School in Raleigh for a new campus that could open this fall. But parents have raised questions about the quality of some of its teachers, many of whom are from Turkey. Those Turkish ties have also led to speculation that Triad Math and Science Academy (TMSA) could be part of a larger network of schools affiliated with the Islamic Gülen movement, an allegation that school officials and supporters vehemently deny...

But parents and former employees have concerns they hope state decision makers and the school will address before the charter is approved. They include the school's use of international teachers and staff visiting on visas, some of whom lack the English skills to adequately teach their classes; and classroom management, particularly for some international faculty. And then there's what a former TMSA employee called the "elephant in the corner."

Several times since TMSA opened in 2008, parents and former employees have speculated that TMSA is linked to Fethullah Gülen, a controversial Islamic preacher whom religious scholars regard as promoting a moderate form of Islam...

Charter schools suspected of Gülen ties are cookie-cutter K–12 academies focused on math, science and engineering, founded by highly educated Turkish scientists and businessmen. Many of the founders have advanced degrees but often limited experience in education. In addition to being founded by Turkish nationals, the schools often spend thousands of dollars to sponsor H1B visas for international faculty and staff, mostly from Turkey.

TMSA fits the model. The board that founded the school in 2008 had five members, three from Turkey, according to their résumés. A fourth board member had a Turkish spouse, and was also the lone member of the board who had a background in education. The board now has seven members, the majority of them from Turkey, according to their résumés...

TMSA also has eight international teachers on visas, including five from Turkey. All together, TMSA has 10 Turkish or Turkish-American employees, of 57 total, including the principal and assistant principal. Since it opened, TMSA has sponsored 17 visas for teachers, at a cumulative cost of $25,500, Orak said. For the past two years, the school has had an annual operating budget of about $4 million, he said...

State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, toured TMSA last week, and questioned Orak about the availability of local teachers. Since 2008, more than 2,100 public school teachers have been laid off and the state has eliminated more than 6,100 teaching jobs, including 187 in Guilford County.

"I have a neighbor whose wife is going to China to teach physics," Harrison said after the tour. "It seemed odd to me that you wouldn't be able to hire a qualified teacher to teach math and science when we have qualified math and science teachers here going abroad because they can't find a job."

Many international teachers who have arrived at TMSA have such poor English skills that they can't do their jobs effectively, parents said...

But despite the concerns of some community members, TMSA's administration has never held a meeting with parents or teachers to openly address the concerns, Orak said...

Even if the allegations are untrue, the school—at the very least—is facing a major public relations problem. [Joel] Medley, the state director of charter schools, said he visited the school last week and asked again about the issue. "I just asked if they were going to respond to the allegations," Medley said. "It's out there." School officials need to be more proactive in addressing it, he said.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, please read “Triad Math and Science Academy: Evidence of affiliation with Gulen Movement” @

http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/triad-math-and-science-academy.html

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K12, Inc.

“Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Announces Investigation of K12, Inc.” Press Release: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, 12/16/2011 

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at K12, Inc. (“K12” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LRN - News).

The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by failing to disclose that: (1) according to various academic benchmarks, K12 students were chronically underperforming their peers at traditional schools; (2) K12 has aggressively recruited students to their schools, regardless of how well-suited they might be for the Company’s curriculum; (3) as a result of K12’s haphazard recruiting process, the Company experiences student retention problems resulting in high rates of withdrawal; (4) K12 schools often have far larger student-to-teacher ratios than the Company advertises; and (5) K12 teachers have been pressured to allow students to pass regardless of academic performance, in order to receive federal funds.

On December 12, 2011, after several months of research, the New York Times published an article entitled “Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools.” The article raised serious concerns about K12’s business practices, alleging that Company schools inflate their student rosters, are underperforming academically, have detrimental student-to-teacher ratios and gain wrongful access to public funds. On this devastating news, K12 shares collapsed almost 24%, closing at $22 per share on December 13.

Request more information now by clicking here: www.faruqilaw.com/LRN

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“Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools.” New York Times, 12/12/2011  

By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing.

Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.

By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.

Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-profit companies also run online public elementary and high schools, enrolling a large chunk of the more than 200,000 full-time cyberpupils in the United States...

Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million...

The New York Times has spent several months examining this idea, focusing on K12 Inc. A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed.

Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.

Current and former staff members of K12 Inc. schools say problems begin with intense recruitment efforts that fail to filter out students who are not suited for the program, which requires strong parental commitment and self-motivated students. Online schools typically are characterized by high rates of withdrawal...

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K12, Inc. / LRN stock price trends @ http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/LRN

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Harmony charter school network (TX)

“Harmony schools causing discord.” San Antonio Express-News (TX), 1/4/2012 

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.

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More information:

• “Harmony Public Schools, AKA Harmony Science Academy schools / Cosmos Foundation"
• "The New York Times vs Harmony Public Schools"
• "Gulen charter schools in Texas"

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Florida charter schools (investigator observations)

“Experiences As A Police Officer With The Ugly Side Of Charter Schools And Their Management Companies.” Florida Public Employees Partnership, 12/15/2011 

With such a strong push for continued expansion in Florida, I am compelled to share my experiences as a police officer with the ugly side of Charter Schools and their management companies. As a former investigator and supervisor of a public corruption unit, several years ago my unit was responsible for a series of criminal investigations involving personnel, owners, and partners of Charter Schools. Where as some of these investigations resulted in schools being shut down and arrests others culminated in utter frustration resulting from criminals getting away with fraud. A fact made possible by industry wide practices that benefit from weak laws and the impossibility of effective industry oversight. 

During the course of these investigations members of my unit worked with a host of local, state, and federal investigators. One of which became the target of a multi-state Federal Bureau of Investigations criminal investigation. Where as, I do not claim to be an expert in the business of running Charter Schools my investigative experience provided a good insight into the big businesses of collecting Tax Dollars for educating public school children. It is from this insight that I share the following:

In everyone of our investigative cases, the schools were set up as nonprofit organizations. Most hired management companies to oversee the day to day operation of the schools. They all had a Board of Directors, had applied for and granted a Charter to be a school from local school districts as governed by Florida State Statute 1002.33 http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/. Their main source of revenue was per pupil funding – called Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Some received more funding based on student disabilities.  In every case the drive to recruit more students was the primary focus of the schools and management companies. Most schools had received additional funding from available grants and all claimed Tax Exemptions as nonprofit organizations.

In just about every case the founders of the Charter Schools had ties to the Board of Directors which authorized the hiring of the management companies to run the schools. Even worse, we discovered the owners of the management companies were either the same as the school founders or were directly connected to them.  All of which revealed major conflicts of interests in most of the decisions made on the spending of Tax Dollars and education of students.

Like the Miami Herald’s Charter Schools expose, we confirmed the common practice of management companies charging for the leasing of school site facilities, vehicles, and materials. Items that were either owned by the management company or linked to their owners.  A practice that was followed with exorbitant management fees charged for services that often could not be explained, were unjustified, or could have been done by school staff for less. In all, these companies’ rule over all matters of business resulted in the majority of the schools’ money being collected by the management company or vendors of their choice without the benefit of competitive bids.

Internally, school staff like teachers, school administrators, and other staff were generally paid less than their public school counterparts. Staff had no benefit of collective bargaining, union representation and as such were at will employees.  Teachers were commonly discovered to be teaching out of field. Interviews revealed there were individuals hired with minimal to no qualifications to teach or perform the job functions of their assignments. The majority of these schools were found to be ill equipped with teaching materials that often were substandard to those in public schools.  The lack of common resources available in public school districts was a constant...

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Online schools (poor academic performance)

“Students of Online Schools Are Lagging.” New York Times, 1/6/2012 

The number of students in virtual schools run by educational management organizations rose sharply last year, according to a new report being published Friday, and far fewer of them are proving proficient on standardized tests compared with their peers in other privately managed charter schools and in traditional public schools.

About 116,000 students were educated in 93 virtual schools — those where instruction is entirely or mainly provided over the Internet — run by private management companies in the 2010-11 school year, up 43 percent from the previous year, according to the report being published by the National Education Policy Center, a research center at the University of Colorado. About 27 percent of these schools achieved “adequate yearly progress,” the key federal standard set forth under the No Child Left Behind act to measure academic progress. By comparison, nearly 52 percent of all privately managed brick-and-mortar schools reached that goal, a figure comparable to all public schools nationally.

“There’s a pretty large gap between virtual and brick-and-mortar,” said Gary Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at Western Michigan University and a co-author of the study.

“E.M.O.’s” — educational management organizations, a term coined by Wall Street in the 1990s — now operate 35 percent of all charter schools, enrolling 42 percent of all charter school students, according to the report. “Charter schools are publicly funded and they are serving public school students,” Dr. Miron noted. “But they are increasingly privately owned and privately governed.”

Some of the management companies are nonprofit organizations — the largest is the KIPP Foundation, with 28,261 students — while others are for-profit companies (K12 Inc. leads this sector, with 65,396). The report focuses on those that have full-service agreements to run schools, as opposed to vendors that offer ancillary services like curriculum development...

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KKK endorses charter schools because they increase segregation

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) responds to “Segregated Charter Schools Evoke Separate but Equal Era in U.S.”, 12/28/2011  

The kids in the article below seem to be happy.  Parents have been given a choice as to where to send their children and without government interference, many have selected schools with a student population that reflects the race of those children.  In addition, many of these schools  satisfy the children’s longing to identify with their racial history by incorporating cultural studies relating to their ethnicity.  There is nothing wrong with this, yet some think it is terrible. In fact, the majority of people prefer to be around others who are like them.  Even those who enjoy international travel and experiencing other cultures still, for the most part, live the rest of their life among those of similar racial background.  Why does this make some social engineers so angry? It is only natural. Each race should have the right to determine their own affairs without interference.  This is why homogeneous nations are good for world peace. Everyone needs their own space.  And parents who choose charter schools for their children based upon this fact are doing so instinctually and its healthy for their families.

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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...

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Harlem Success Academy 3

“High Teacher Turnover at a Success Network School.”The New York Times SchoolBook, 10/19/2011 

More than a third of the staff members at a Harlem charter school run by the Success Charter Network have left the school within the last several months, challenging an organization that prides itself on the training and support it offers its teachers.

The unusually high turnover at Harlem Success Academy 3 and the network-wide issue of teachers quitting mid-year led the founder and chief executive of the Success Charter Network, Eva S. Moskowitz, to express concern in an October newsletter.

“This is not a ‘gig’ ” she wrote, informing staff members that by breaking their commitment to the schools and families midyear, they were acting unethically.

At Harlem Success Academy 3, 22 of the school’s 59 administrators, teachers and classroom aides left between the end of the last school year and the beginning of this one, according to the school’s records. Some took jobs at other schools, some moved to new cities and some said they quit out of frustration with the school’s tightly regulated environment...

Few of the teachers who left Harlem Success Academy 3 would speak about why they quit, and those who did refused to be named, citing fear of retribution or concern that they could lose their new teaching positions.

Morty Ballen, the founder and chief executive of Explore Schools, said he had not intentionally poached Success Academy’s teachers.

One former Harlem Success Academy 3 teacher who quit at the end of last school year said she had left because she felt “micromanaged.”

“You couldn’t teach in the way you wanted to teach,” she said. “If your kids weren’t sitting perfectly, looking straight at the teacher, not saying a single word, then you weren’t doing your job.”...

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Riverwood International Charter School

“Report details alleged fraud by former Riverwood principal.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 3/27/2012

Former Riverwood International Charter School Principal Eddie Echols stole almost $25,000 by making charges to a fraudulent credit card, according to a police report the Fulton County School District released Monday night.

Eddie Echols, who resigned last fall from Riverwood in Sandy Springs, has been charged with theft by taking, financial identity fraud and financial transaction card fraud, according to the report.

The report, compiled by Fulton County schools Police Chief Felipe Usury, alleges that Echols admitted to making inappropriate charges because he had financial troubles...

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“Riverwood athletic director resigns.” Reporter Newspapers (GA), 10/6/2011

Another high-profile administrator at Riverwood International Charter School has resigned.

Athletic Director Jeff Holloway, who was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 28 after various allegations were made against him, has resigned as athletic director and teacher at the school. Fulton County Schools executive director of communications Samantha Evans confirmed the resignation Oct. 6.

According to an investigator’s report, the school system investigated parent complaints that Holloway mingled personal funds with school funds...

This is the second resignation since the start of the school year.

School Principal Eddie Echols resigned earlier in September due to an audit report that found financial mismanagement...

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“Popular Sandy Springs principal resigns amid audit revelations.” WSBTV (GA), 9/20/2011

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A popular Fulton County school principal resigned from his post Friday after school officials said a routine audit found "inappropriate use of financial resources."

Eddie Echols had been principal of Riverwood International Charter High School in Sandy Springs since 2002 and had been with the school since 1993.

According to an internal audit obtained by Channel 2's Mike Petchenik, school officials discovered Echols had used an "unauthorized" American Express card linked to the school to make personal purchases. Auditors wrote that Echols reimbursed the district for some of the purchases, but that they could not verify that all purchases were reimbursed because Echols didn't provide a detailed list of all expenses.

An investigative letter obained by Petchenik said that Echols admitted to school investigators he had used the card to pay for "rehearsal dinner" for his family and that he had purchased tickets for his wife to attend a conference with him.

"But I paid them right back," the letter said Echols told investigators. The letter said Echols "also provided that he had encountered financial difficulty, which is inferred as a possible reason for use of the credit card for personal expenses."

Fulton County School District spokeswoman Samantha Evans told Petchenik there was no evidence Echols stole any money or that he broke the law, but the audit revealed he had misused "several thousand dollars" during the 2008-2009 school year...

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Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School

“Rejected 3 Times, School May Still Open Soon, and With a Grant, Too.” New York Times, 1/8/2012 

In the last couple of years, Sharon Akman, a real estate agent, applied to the state of New Jersey three times to open a new charter school in the Highland Park area, to be called Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School.

Each time, she was rejected.

Then on Oct. 6, one week after the state’s most recent rejection, the United States Education Department announced that it had approved a $600,000 grant to finance Ms. Akman’s proposed charter.

It would have taken federal officials just a few phone calls to determine that there were many good reasons for the state to have rejected Ms. Akman’s applications...

Ms. Akman, who declined to comment for this column, writes that the charter school would be located in St. Mary of Mount Virgin Church in New Brunswick, even though the bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, Paul G. Bootkoski, has repeatedly said that the building is not available.

Ms. Akman’s documents list community supporters of the school, including Jun Choi, a former mayor of Edison, and the directors of the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, who have written in e-mails made public that they are not supporters.

The application says there is a need for a Hebrew charter in the Highland Park-Edison-New Brunswick area, even though there are many Jewish private schools close by and, as Ms. Akman has told state reviewers, no community survey has been done.

The application says that the families served by the New Brunswick schools, which are predominantly black and Hispanic, support the Hebrew charter, even though school leaders and the local N.A.A.C.P. chapter do not...

An applicant with a $600,000 pledge in her pocket may be seen in a new light by state officials...

What we do know is that in mid-October Ms. Akman made her fourth try, as 1 of 42 applicants statewide.

And in December, the state made its first cuts, leaving 17 applicants — including Tikun Olam.

Next week state officials are to announce which are approved. If Tikun Olam is successful, the school plans to open in September with 100 students.

Ms. Akman has repeatedly refused to talk to reporters...

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Academy of Learning and Academy of Design and Technology

“Charter school with troubled past wants to open in Norton.” Beacon Journal (OH), 1/8/2012 

A charter school is trying to open in Norton and compete with Norton City Schools for its students and state money, even though the district is rated excellent and generally should be off-limits to charter schools opening within its borders.

The school for grades K-4 calls itself the Academy of Learning and first appeared under that name in Doylestown last fall.

The Academy of Learning appears to have enrolled about a dozen children whose parents withdrew them from the excellent-rated Chippewa school district and told district officials the children would be home-schooled...

The Academy of Learning spent much of the past year looking for a new home when its original sponsor, Liberty Local Schools near Youngstown, severed ties last year because of the charter school’s “dysfunctional organizational structure” and failure to maintain financial records required for a state audit...

On Feb. 7, 2011, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost wrote a letter to Obermiyer and Liberty Superintendent Stan Watson informing them that the condition of records the district provided for an audit of the 2009-10 school year were not adequate and the district was now considered “unauditable.” Missing documents included “bank reconciliations for the entire period” and “bank statements for July and August 2010.”...

On May 26, Yost declared Liberty Local Schools to be in fiscal watch...

Meanwhile, Carlile and Obermiyer had already launched a quest to keep the charter school going in some form...

They approached North Central Educational Service Center in Tiffin, southeast of Toledo, in the spring.

In May, the North Central ESC passed resolutions approving the hire of Carlile and Obermiyer and the sponsorship of a new conversion school to be called Just for Kids in Doylestown...

But before formal contracts were presented to the board for approval, Lahoski discovered the problems that Liberty had with the state auditor. He said neither Carlile nor Obermiyer had said anything about the financial situation at Liberty during their many conversations...

“Liberty informed us that it was non-renewing and terminating the two schools’ contracts. So based upon that, we notified all the relevant offices that funding should cease with the end of the fiscal year and that’s what happened, ” said Joni Hoffman, who directs the state office overseeing charter schools. “That’s when it started to get very confusing...

However, the Portage County ESC issued a notice on Sept. 30 that it intended to suspend its sponsorship for “failure to provide learning opportunities in a manner consistent with law” and because the school had enrolled fewer than 25 students and was using an “unauthorized facility.”

The building issue was discovered by the Chippewa Township fire chief when he responded to a squad call at the J.A.S. Building and discovered a school in operation. But the building hadn’t been approved for a school...

The Academy of Learning has never officially changed its name, so as far as Portage County ESC and the state are concerned, it’s still the LEARN school. Its sponsorship is suspended, which means it can receive no state or federal funding. It has no official students...

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The Carden School of Tucson

“2 charter schools struck by thefts.” Arizona Daily Star, 1/1/2012  

When charter school director Bette Jeppson sat down with an accountant last March, she expected to get a few tips on how the school could improve its bookkeeping and finances.

What she got instead was a litany of illegal transactions by the school's business manager that drained resources to the point the school was forced to cut back in educational spending, making it one of two Southern Arizona charter schools to come under investigation by the Arizona attorney general for financial improprieties.

For example, Jeppson didn't expect to learn business manager Keri Gall had given herself a 29 percent raise and was making 40 percent more than she herself was.

Or that the manager had used the school's credit cards to buy a $1,000 boxer, designer clothes, manicures, groceries and items used to remodel her home.

Jeppson was even more stunned to learn the manager hadn't been depositing money into teachers' IRAs and even forced one to pay her own health insurance...

Instead, Jeppson found out that morning Gall had been writing checks to herself and fixing the books, plus misusing the credit cards...

Originally charged with one count of fraud and four counts of theft, Gall pleaded guilty to one count of theft. She was also ordered to pay $150,280 in restitution at no less than $500 a month.

Authorities can prove Gall stole $128,000 between Jan. 1, 2007 and March 23, 2011; the K-8 school couldn't afford to dig back to her 2003 starting date...

Gall is not the only charter school employee to end up before a judge in recent months...[SEE entry for The Pima Partnership School]

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Harmony Science Academy – Waco

“Man sentenced in Waco for sex assault of teen.” ABC13 KTRK (TX), 11/21/2011

WACO, TX -- A former Child Protective Services worker and Waco high school teacher has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl he met while they were acting in a play.

The Waco Herald-Tribune reports 32-year-old Clifton Grasham-Reeves, a former English teacher at Harmony Science Academy who regularly performed in Waco Civic Theatre productions, was convicted of four counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by contact...

Among the school board's options are calling for a new director or principal at New Point, amending the school's charter or even closing the school.

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Creative Studies Charter School

“Accuracy of Charter School Applications Questioned; State denies Creative Studies' founder's bids for charters in Lacey and Voorhees.” LaceyPatch (NJ), 1/4/2012  

The state has not yet released a detailed explanation of its decision to dismiss the Creative Studies Charter School proposal, but the veracity of the organization's founder's applications to the state have been called into question.

Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf cited "deficiencies" in denying founder Pamela Brown's applications for charter schools in Lacey Township as well as Voorhees. A review of both applications shows two different residencies listed. 

Brown is not a permanent resident of Lacey Township and does not have a child attending Lacey schools, as stated on her application to the state and required by statute...

According to state law, a “qualified founder” of a charter school must be either a teaching staff member or a parent with a child attending a school in the district.

The school district confirmed that Brown’s child is not a student in Lacey, school board President Jack Martenak said. The Voorhees School District confirmed that Brown is a resident of that municipality and her son is a student there...

“I just think it’s rather odd that she submitted an application with two different residencies,” [Martenak] said. “It almost seems fraudulent.”...

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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...

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Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School

"Bethlehem school board accepts Vitalistic's voluntary charter surrender.” The Express Times (PA), 12/10/2012

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...

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“Bills pile up as Vitalistic charter school's future looks murky; Bethlehem charter school hasn't offered mandatory speech therapy since February, owes creditors $87,531.” The Morning Call (PA), 3/31/2012

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."...

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“Vitalistic charter school chief resigns,alleging continued financial mismanagement; She alleges continuing financial mismanagement at Vitalistic in Bethlehem.” The Morning Call (PA), 3/28/2012

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...

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“State offers to help investigate Vitalistic charter school; Pennsylvania Department of Education offers Allentown and Bethlehem school officials help examining charter's financial and special education records.” The Morning Call (PA), 12/31/2011 

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.

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The original story here: “WATCHDOG REPORT: A charter school's troubles emerge; Vitalistic Therapeutic billed state for 'services not rendered' records offer no proof of services to students.” The Morning Call (PA), 11/26/2011  

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