Gulen charter schools in North Carolina

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL
NC	1	2	4	7

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

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TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN 2010-2011 = 421 STUDENTS

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SCHOOLS

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TRIAD MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY
Status	ACTIVE, opened 2008
Management	Triad Math and Science Academy Company
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
Term of charter	17/1/2008 through 6/30/2018; 10-year term
District	Guilford County Schools
Location/Website	700 Creek Ridge Road, Greensboro; http://www.tmsacharter.org/
Enrollment	Grades K-9; 421 students in 2010-2011
Individuals involved	Board of Directors: Ali Tombak, Numan S. Dogan, Diane M. Gunesgor, Gary L. Lebby, Suzan Mertyruek, Mustafa Atay, Kenan Gundogdu (from website accessed 4/22/2012)
Notes	School was originally located at 900 16th Street, Greensboro.

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TRIANGLE MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY
Status	PENDING > APPROVED: due to open fall 2012
History	Application for “fast track” charter submitted fall 2011; approved March 2012
Management	Triad Math and Science Academy Company
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
Term of charter	NC grants charters for up to ten years, w/review at five years.
District	Wake County Public School System
Website	http://tmsacademy.org/
Individuals involved	Names on application: Kenan Gundogdu (contact person), Ali Tombak, Numan S. Dogan, Diane Gunesgor, Gary L. Lebby, Mustafa Atay
Notes	A connection between TMSA and the Washington Education Foundation (WEDUF) was revealed in the article “Questions loom about group proposing Raleigh charter school.” Independent Weekly, 1/25/2012: “[Hasan] Karaburk has been visiting TMSA and other charter schools as a consultant for the Washington Education Foundation...Karaburk appeared at a January meeting of the N.C. Public Charter School Advisory Board, where he sat with and spoke with applicants for both TMSA’s proposed Raleigh school and the Piedmont IT Academy.” “Triad Math and Science Academy “is our sister school.”

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PIEDMONT IT ACADEMY
Status	DECISION PENDING; three attempts to date
History	First PITA application submitted Feb. 2010 for fall 2011 opening was rejected; Second application for “fast track” charter following state lifting of charter school cap was also rejected; Third application was submitted April 2012 for fall 2013 opening.
Management	Piedmont IT Academy nonprofit
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
District	Union County Public Schools
Website	http://www.PITacademy.org (on application)
Individuals involved	Names on application: Adem Kaya (primary contact), Kenan Caglar, Carlton L. Cammon, Jordan Fish (AKA Jordan Sapan), Amela Mekic (husband was involved in Gulen charter school attempt in PA), Gary L. Lebby, Alper Tekten

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WAKE MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY
Status	INACTIVE, application submitted in February 2009
Management	Wake Math and Science Academy Company, EIN 26-4178833
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
District	Wake County Public School System
Individuals involved	Names on application: Kenan Gundogdu (primary contact), Atilla Akbay, Diane M. Gunesgor, Nihal Cakmakci, Clifford Griffin, Alper Tekten

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UNION IT ACADEMY
Status	INACTIVE, website name established March 2009
Management	Website domain name only (now expired); registrant was Ismail Sakaoglu (assoc. with Piedmont IT Academy as original registered agent of incorporation).

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CAPE FEAR STEM SCHOOL
Status	INACTIVE, application submitted in February 2010
Management	Cape Fear Education Services, Inc.
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
District	Cumberland County Schools
Individuals involved	Names on application: Ali Ikiz (primary contact), Cevdet Akbay* (assoc. w/Fulton Science Academy, a Gulen charter school in GA), Nida Noorani, Terry Warren Kelly, Arif Dagli (assoc w/STARS Middle School, a Gulen charter school in FL).
Notes	Washington Education Foundation is mentioned in charter application (see “service provider” section below). Mission statement segment is identical to that found at Chesapeake Math & IT Academy, a Gulen charter school in MD.

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IT ACADEMY OF TRIANGLE
Status	INACTIVE, application submitted in February 2010
Management	IT Academy of Triangle Company
Authorizer	NC Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
District	Wake County Public School System
Individuals involved	Names on application: Kenan Gundogdu (primary contact), Julie K. Williams, Diane Gunesgor, Michael Heuberger, Clifford E. Griffin, Zeynep Tulu, Ekrem Hatip, Atilla Akbay
Notes	Washington Education Foundation is mentioned in charter application (see “service provider” section below)

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MANAGEMENT

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TRIAD MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY COMPANY
Federal Tax ID	EIN 208471670
History	“Computer and electrical engineering professors. An elementary school teacher. An RFMD design engineer. A businesswoman for a pharmaceutical company. They want to create a school for children that focuses on, no surprise here, scientific careers...” (From “Group Tries for Charter School Slot.” Greensboro News Record, 7/19/2007)
Individuals involved	Ali Tombak, Diane M. Gunesgor (husband Yasar Gunesgor), Hakan Orak, Kenan Gundogdu, Mustafa Atay, Numan S. Dogan, Suzan Mertyurek (involved with Gulen charter school attempt in TN) (source: IRS Form 990s for 2008 and 2009).

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SERVICE PROVIDER

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WASHINGTON EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Federal Tax ID	EIN 204865986
Website	http://ww.weduf.org/
Location	1600 K St. NW, Ste 803, Washington, DC
Services	From website: “Weduf conducts research on best educational practices, and coordinates implementation of the best practices at its member schools, and provides educational consulting services.”
Individuals involved	Necmetti Mutlu, Ben (=Bunyamin) Karaduman, Omer Kutlu, Mahmut Yeter, Ender Zirekoglu, Mehmet Kocak, Yahyahan Kaya, Mustafa Bozoklu (Form 990s 2009, 2010), plus Hasan Karaburk (see Triangle Math and Science Academy notes above)

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* Also see “Yes, I am a Fethullah follower” @ http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/fulton-science-academy-cape-fear-board-member-yes-i-am-a-fethullah-follower.html

NOTE: Learn more about the Triad Math and Science Academy HERE.

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Imagine Schools in St. Louis, Missouri (six-school shutdown)

“Shuttering of Imagine charter schools in St. Louis is daunting.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), 4/20/2012     

 As they move to close down a network of St. Louis charter schools over the next several weeks, state education officials face a task as monumental and complicated as dismantling an entire school district...

In fact, the decision this week by Missouri's Board of Education to shutter six Imagine charter schools in St. Louis will likely result in the largest charter school closure of its kind nationwide, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools...

A state transition office at Harris-Stowe State University has a transition coordinator and an assistant employed by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The team they are working with includes representatives from the Missouri Public Charter School Association and St. Louis Public Schools...

...The governing board of Confluence Academy, with four charter schools and nearly 3,200 students, is working to cut ties with its for-profit operator, EdisonLearning Inc., to improve academic achievement. Test scores at three of the schools are also below those of St. Louis Public Schools...

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“Missouri calls it quits on Imagine charter schools in St. Louis.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), 4/18/2012  

The Missouri Board of Education put underperforming charter schools statewide on notice Tuesday by voting to close all Imagine charter schools in St. Louis...

The move follows months of increasing scrutiny of the schools' financial, leadership and academic problems. The schools are operated by Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc., a for-profit charter school management company. Students enrolled at the schools make up about one-third of the city's charter school population.

State test results from 2011 showed that nearly all students at the city's Imagine schools were performing below grade level in reading and math, prompting St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Nicastro to call for the closure of the schools.

In December, their sponsor, Missouri Baptist University, announced it would close two of them — Imagine Academy of Academic Success and Imagine Academy of Cultural Arts — this spring, and place the other four on probation.

On Monday, Missouri Baptist University relinquished its sponsorship of the six charter schools, handing all regulatory authority over to the state. And one day later, the Board of Education voted to close them.

But even as the state moves toward shuttering all schools by June 30, some have discussed a long-shot option of keeping some version of the schools open...

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MORE TO READ AT “Missouri closing six Imagine charter school campuses.” Washington Post, 4/18/2012    

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Mavericks High of Palm Beach County

“Audit claims Palm Springs charter school got nearly $160K more in state money by overstating enrollment.” Palm Beach Post (FL), 1/6/2013

A Palm Beach County charter school got nearly $160,000 more in state education money than it was entitled to receive after overstating 2011-12 enrollment, a draft audit released last week by the school district’s inspector general claims.

According to the draft audit from Inspector General Lung Chiu, Mavericks High School in Palm Springs counted and was given funds for at least 56 students who did not attend the school at all during two 11-day “survey periods” last year required by the state Department of Education. The survey periods are used to establish enrollment figures on which the department bases its per-student funding to schools.

Mavericks, a West Palm Beach-based chain of seven Florida charter schools, offers live and online classes and caters to at-risk students. It’s perhaps best known for its president and chief development officer, Frank Biden, brother of Vice President Joe Biden.

Chiu’s office began investigating the school after a former teacher — Angenora Mechato — filed a lawsuit in April alleging that Mavericks fabricates enrollment data and that she was fired for refusing to falsify records. Two teachers at the Mavericks school in Homestead have made similar allegations in lawsuits. The Miami attorney for all three teachers, Dale Morgado, could not be reached for comment...

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“Lawsuit alleges high school asked teacher to fabricate grades in classes students didn't take.” The Palm Beach Post, (FL), 4/14/2012  

PALM SPRINGS — A former teacher at the new Mavericks High School in Palm Springs has filed a lawsuit alleging that the school falsifies enrollment records and fabricates student grades in classes the students did not take.

The lawsuit, filed by Angenora Mechato, is the third such whistleblower lawsuit to be filed by former employees of the chain of Florida charter schools. The chain is run by a for-profit management company based in West Palm Beach, Mavericks In Education Florida LLC...

Mavericks' chain of schools has come under some scrutiny and controversy in recent months. The company has been turned down in bids to open more schools in Hernando and Hillsborough counties, and in February, the Palm Beach County School District denied applications for three new Mavericks schools here in Palm Beach County. District staff had recommended the denial, citing concerns regarding how effective other Mavericks schools have been in raising student achievement.

Mavericks offers a "blended" learning model that caters to at-risk students who might have dropped out or be in danger of dropping out. According to the schools, students spend part of their time in a traditional classroom and part of the time working independently on a computer doing assignments.

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“Principal at Mavericks High in Palm Springs Not Certified to Teach in Florida.”Broward-Palm Beach New Times (FL), 1/23/2012   

The principal of the Mavericks High charter school in Palm Springs is not certified to teach in Florida, according to the State Department of Education.

Thomas Lockett runs a school that serves roughly 500 at-risk students and promises to help them earn enough credits to graduate. Yet he does not have a teaching certificate or list any teaching experience on his LinkedIn online résumé. Prior to joining Mavericks last year, he was an account executive for home health-care and pharmaceutical companies. He also served six months as a regional director for  Revolution Prep, a test preparation and education software company...

One former Mavericks employee, who spoke to the Pulp on the condition of anonymity, says Lockett does not have a background in education and relies on other staffers for help. "He's clueless," the employee says...

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Truebright Science Academy Charter School

“SRC begins process to shut 3 charter schools.” Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 4/19/2012   

For the first time in four years, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Thursday night began the process of closing city charter schools.

The commission voted to put three schools on notice that their five-year operating charters would not be renewed: Truebright Science Academy, Arise Academy, and Hope...

The schools will remain open for the 2012-13 academic year...

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“SRC votesnot to renew three charters.” The Notebook (PA), 4/19/2012  

...[Bekir Duz, CEO of Truebright] told the Notebook that his school plans to appeal to the state. Schools can stay open during the appeals process.

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“Allegations raised over N. Phila. charter school run by followers of Turkish imam.”Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 4/19/2012   

Truebright Science Academy Charter School in North Philadelphia is one of more than 130 charter schools nationwide run by followers of the Turkish imam M. Fetullah Gulen, and federal officials have put it under a microscope.

Not only are the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education looking into allegations of kickbacks by Turkish teachers at the charters nationwide, according to knowledgeable sources, but at least nine American teachers and administrators at Truebright have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. All allege that they were being paid less than noncertified Turkish staffers.

Now the Philadelphia School District's charter office has recommended to the School Reform Commission that it not renew Truebright's five-year operating charter on several grounds, including academic performance, lack of certified staff, and high turnover of administrators...

The charter school office report does not mention Gulen or note that a third of Truebright's teachers and administrators are from Turkey. Most are working in this country with non-immigrant visas.

Some parents say their children cannot understand their Turkish teachers because their English language skills are deficient. And staffers say the school's operations are shrouded in secrecy, and they risk losing their jobs if they ask too many questions. After The Inquirer reported about federal investigations last year, staffers reported that school officials had shredded documents...

The Rev. James W. Wright Sr., president of Truebright's parent teachers association, said he was embarrassed to learn a statement that school officials persuaded him to read at a recent SRC meeting erroneously claimed that 97 percent of the first senior class had graduated last June. In reality, only 33 of the 50 students who started in ninth grade stayed and received diplomas, according to a former administrator...

In a recent interview, [CEO Bekir Duz] insisted that Truebright was not part of any Turkish network and did not believe it was being investigated. "Truebright is a school that is run independently," Duz said.

He said the fact that 10 of the school's 32 teachers and administrators are from Turkey and have worked at similar charters across the United States does not mean the schools are linked...

He declined to comment on Gulen, a major Islamic political figure in Turkey who lives in self-imposed exile in a Poconos enclave.

In 2008, Gulen obtained a green card by convincing a federal judge in Philadelphia that he was an influential educational figure in the United States and pointed to the charter schools that have been opened across the country by his followers - Turkish scientists, engineers, and businessmen.

Duz said that he didn't want to discuss Gulen because "I'm a public school employee here, and I run this school solely by the charter-school law."

However, in a 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about a proposed Turkish cultural center in Allegheny County, he talked about Gulen. Duz, who was on the center's board at the time, said members followed the teachings of Gulen, who founded a movement emphasizing education and interfaith dialogue...

Copies of photographs showing shredded documents and a Turkish staffer holding a ladder while another man removed the camera were obtained by The Inquirer...

Truebright was in turmoil in early 2011 when Riza Ulker, the school's founding CEO, disappeared after the Christmas holidays. Board meeting minutes say that Ulker requested a leave to deal with family issues. Current and former staffers believe he returned to Turkey.

Tansu Cidav arrived at Truebright from a Gulen charter in Austin, Texas, to serve as interim head. Truebright's board subsequently hired Duz in August to be permanent CEO. Duz had been a top administrator at Central Jersey College Prep Charter School in Somerset, another charter run by Gulen followers...

READ THE REST!

More about Truebright’s Gulen Movement affiliations @ http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/truebright-science-academy.html

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Mavericks in Education Florida LLC

“Mavericks High Schools Hope to Profit From Education – But at What Cost?” Broward-Palm Beach New Times (FL), 12/29/2011    

...This is Frank Biden, the brother of Vice President Joe Biden. He's here, at a ribbon-cutting event August 31, to promote the first Palm Beach County location of a local for-profit chain of charter schools called Mavericks in Education Florida...

But so far, Mavericks' lofty goals haven't materialized. Most of their schools graduate less than 15 percent of eligible students. On state report cards, the schools get "incompletes" because so few of their students are taking the FCAT. In Miami, two former teachers filed whistle-blower lawsuits alleging the Homestead school is inflating attendance records and failing to report grades properly.

Plus, there are rampant financial questions, cozy ties between Mavericks and local politicians, and a legal fight with former celebrity spokesman Dwyane Wade...

Mavericks' story begins in Akron, Ohio, with a wealthy industrialist who loved to wear big cowboy hats and donate millions of dollars to Republican politicians. In 1998, David Brennan launched White Hat Management. His charter schools were housed in strip malls, and the students herded in to sit at computers for three shifts a day. This was an education model Mavericks would later call the "next generation in education." But state auditors weren't so fond of the company...

One of White Hat's early leaders was Mark Thimmig. As CEO from 2001 to 2005, he helped grow the company into one of the largest charter school chains in the country. As of 2010, White Hat had 51 charter schools in six states, including ten charter schools in Florida called Life Skills Centers.

Two years after leaving White Hat, Thimmig alleges in court documents, he was approached by Palm Beach Gardens developer Mark Rodberg about launching a chain of charter schools here. Rodberg had built a few schools for White Hat, but had never run one before. He owned restaurants, including Bucky's Bar-B-Que in Boca Raton and Bucky's Grill in Fort Lauderdale. Together, Thimmig and Rodberg came up with a plan that was nearly identical to White Hat's: Students would attend school but take all their courses online, using virtual technology that required minimal maintenance. Classrooms could hold rows of cubicles with computers where kids would sit elbow-to-elbow. There would be no after-school sports teams, just "cyber-athletics" that allowed kids to play Wii instead of shooting hoops...

Each school is overseen by a local, nonprofit board. Mavericks in Education Florida LLC then charges the nonprofit hundreds of thousands of dollars in management fees to run daily operations. Mavericks also handles the real estate, charging the schools $350,000 a year in rent...

Hollander says the charters planned to use the basketball star [Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade] as a celebrity spokesman, encouraging kids to enroll in Mavericks and graduate. "Kids related to him. Parents related to him. Even grandparents related to him! He was the biggest celebrity ever to be connected with the national high school dropout crisis," Thimmig told New Times in 2009...

But pairing schools with a restaurant chain and a basketball star turned out to be a lethal mix. Wade would later allege in court documents that the partners were scheming to cut him out of profits. When they asked him to invest $1 million in the Aventura location of the restaurant, he refused...

In December 2009, Thimmig resigned as CEO. Then he sued Mavericks for back salary and money he said he lent the company — a total of at least $300,000. He also aired the company's dirty laundry in public court documents. Just two years after its founding, the hope factory was floundering...

... Only Michigan has more charter schools run by for-profit companies than Florida, according to a 2010 study published by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado. Last year, there were 145 schools in Florida run by companies such as Mavericks.

Plenty of government grants help charters grow. Reports submitted to the state by Mavericks show their schools each receive about $250,000 a year in federal grants...

Often these schools struggle academically or financially, yet their management companies are allowed to keep opening new campuses...

Biden says, "We just graduated almost 200 people in one location."

But figures from the Florida Department of Education paint a vastly different picture, showing that Mavericks schools have a worse graduation rate than traditional public schools in Florida...

On Florida's state report cards, Mavericks schools in Miami-Dade, Pinellas, and Osceola counties have all scored "incomplete" because not enough students have taken the FCAT. Hollander says she expects the FCAT grade to change as more students enroll...

Meanwhile, recent lawsuits filed against Mavericks raise questions about whether any of the schools' statistics can be trusted...

Mavericks' paper trail is also troubling. Accountability reports, submitted by Mavericks to the state, contain bizarre financial figures...

Money has long been a problem for Mavericks. At the Fort Lauderdale Mavericks in June, independent auditors found the school met state criteria for a "financial emergency," with a net deficit of at least $520,000. At the same time, an audit showed that the North Miami Beach Mavericks was $400,000 in debt and had borrowed from the Mavericks management company to stay afloat. The state department of education also required the Mavericks school in Pinellas to create a financial corrective action plan...

...In 2010, Mavericks in Homestead paid the management company $418,000, or 17 percent of its state funds...

But most of the time, Mavericks isn't buying buildings. It's striking deals with private landlords, then charging individual schools rent of $350,000 per year for five years, regardless of the price of the building. That's the case in Homestead, North Miami, Kissimmee, and Pinellas. In Homestead, the school building's current market value is $1.2 million, but the school is on the hook for $1.75 million in rent over five years.

That sum, combined with its management fee, means the Homestead school paid 28 percent of its revenue to Mavericks in Education in 2010...

BE SURE TO READ THE WHOLE THING!

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“Joe Biden’s Brother Helping God Privatize Public Schools.” By Doug Martin, Firedoglake, 11/29/2011   

When Lisa Rab outed Joe Biden’s brother, Frank, as a major force behind a for-profit education management organization (EMO) dead set on building 100 new charter schools across Florida,* it came as no surprise to anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention to the corporate school reform movement, the Obama/Biden/Duncan regime, or Florida.

What was surprising was that Francis W. Biden told Rab that he and Mavericks in Education Florida, LLC  were on “a mission from God.”...

Not testing students to earn state ratings is nothing new to Mark Thimmig, one of the original founders of Mavericks in 2007. In 2005, after the former AutoNation official joined the notorious for-profit charter school operator White Hat Ventures, Thimmig took heat from the Ohio Department of Education for not adequately reporting student test scores in four of its Life Skills high schools. Also, the Akron Beacon Journal discovered that when Ohio switched testing from the 9th to the 10th grade, White Hat enrolled almost half of its Life Skills schools’ student body into the 9th grade in order to avoid testing these students...

READ THIS ARTICLE, TOO!

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