Ashe Culture Center (11 schools)

“Charter school sponsor clashes with Ohio Department of Education.” The Plain Dealer (OH), 7/31/2011

CLEVELAND -- The Arts Academies -- two troubled charter schools, in Cleveland and Lorain -- have shut down.

But tying up all the loose ends is proving far from easy as the schools' operator and their sponsor, the Cleveland-based Ashe Culture Center, continue to point fingers at each other and the Ohio Department of Education.

At the same time, Ashe and the Education Department are duking it out over whether Ashe deserves to continue as a sponsor, with the fight joined by lawyers all the way up to Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine...

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STATE TRIES TO OUST CHARTER SCHOOL SPONSOR, ASHE CULTURE CENTER; March 6, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) 

For the first time, the state is moving to pull the plug on a charter school sponsor for not properly overseeing the spending of taxpayer money.

Ashe Culture Center, located on East 40th Street in Cleveland, plans to appeal the non-renewal at a hearing scheduled for March 23.

The nonprofit organization sponsors 11 Ohio charter schools, most of them in Cleveland. Charter schools receive state funds but operate independent of districts. For their monitoring role, sponsors get up to 3 percent of the state money that goes to each school…

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6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE; November 24, 2010 The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) 

The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they cannot be properly checked.

All of the schools declared "unauditable" on Tuesday are overseen by the Cleveland-based Ashe Culture Center, which is facing revocation of its sponsorship authority by the Ohio Department of Education.

Four of the unauditable schools (Arts Academy West, Elite Academy of the Arts, Lion of Judah Academy and Marcus Garvey Academy) are in Cleveland, and one (The Arts Academy) is in Lorain.

The sixth school, Greater Heights Academy, had campuses in Cleveland Heights and Cleveland but shut down abruptly in November 2008 because of money problems. The auditor's office is trying to untangle financial dealings at Greater Heights as far back as 2006.

The five unauditable schools that are still open received more than $5.5 million from the state last year to educate over 700 students.

Sponsors get up to 3 percent of the state money for their role in monitoring academics and finances at the privately operated, publicly funded charter schools…

The pressure escalated in September when the Education Department charged that Ashe failed to act on evidence of improper test-taking at Marcus Garvey Academy.

A scoring company had found a high percentage of answers on state tests were erased and changed from wrong to right, but Ashe concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing and considered the case closed. The Education Department did not agree and still has the scores under review…