Deborah Brown Community School

CHARTER SCHOOL SUED BY TEACHER. Tulsa World (OK) 24 Sept 2009 

A woman who quit her job to become a teacher at a new prekindergarten expansion program of the Deborah Brown Community School is suing the charter school for breach of contract after it abandoned plans for the program just days before its scheduled opening…

Bollinger's suit states "that the statements of the Defendants relating to the terms of employment were untrue at the time they were made," and that the false statements were "made with the intent to induce the Plaintiff to leave her previous job and enter into the employment agreement with the school."

Bollinger is seeking a monetary judgment plus punitive damages. Her suit names as defendants the charter school; its founder and director, Deborah Brown; and Harold Roberts, director of development and public affairs…

When the Tulsa World first reported that Deborah Brown Community School was abandoning its plan for the pre-K program after students had already enrolled and just days before the opening, Roberts denied that the prekindergarten program ever existed…

Two weeks later, the Tulsa World obtained documents through an open-records request showing that the school had a one-year, $25,000 lease on 2,091 square feet in two suites in a building at 5157 E. 51st St. and receipts from the city of Tulsa for occupancy permits to accommodate 40 students at the site.

At that time, Roberts and Bingham acknowledged that the school had, in fact, planned to open a new prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds but said the school needed 100 students to make the new program "economically viable" and that they had only 18.