Horizon Charter School

“Rocklin Charter School Shuts Its Doors Amid Controversy.” CBS13 (CA), 10/16/2012

ROCKLIN (CBS13) – Six weeks into the school year a charter school in Rocklin is closing its doors. Four hundred kids were told Friday that their school would close, and Tuesday was their last day.

But many parents say the Horizon CEO is making up false excuses for why he’s closing the doors at Horizon’s Accelerated Learning Academy campus. Fired up families were fuming even more Tuesday over what many consider a lame excuse for the shutdown...

“How can you throw 400 families out?” parent Laura Daggett asked.

Horizon CEO Craig Hembichner spoke to CBS13 on Monday and said the urgent campus closure was all because of safety...

But the county told CBS13 its staff did not tell Hembichner he had to shut down anytime soon, not wanting to interrupt the school year.

The county staff also stated they have traffic congestion concerns, but again they say they never told Hembichner he had to shut down.

During a meeting with parents Tuesday night, Heimbichner spent the first 30 minutes of his presentation talking about the history of Horizon Charter Schools before someone finally stood up and yelled for him get to the point.

The angry interruptions became a common theme throughout. Some parents got so frustrated they walked out...

[Heimbichner] said he’s looking for a new facility and in the meantime the kids will have independent study from home.

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“Questionable lease led to Rocklin charter school shutdown.” News10 ABC (CA), 10/17/2012

ROCKLIN, CA - A regional charter school operator signed a 10-year lease for classroom space in a Rocklin industrial center, apparently unaware its new school was prohibited by the local zoning code...

A Placer County business license application filed by GroupAccess president William Brockmeyer in May 2011 claimed the space would be used as a "resource center" with no more than one employee and an average of five clients.

According to the Placer County Community Development Resource Agency (CDRA), the current zoning allows the resource center to legally accomodate 75 students at any one time, but not in a traditional classroom setting.

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Adelanto Charter Academy

“Adelanto Charter School’s Demise Involved Postmus & DeFazio.” San Bernardino County Sentinel (CA), 5/27/2011

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.

A similar circumstance developed with the failed California Charter Academy a decade ago...

Involved in the California Charter Academy debacle but avoiding indictment was former county supervisor and assessor Bill Postmus. Postmus was a member of the Snowline School District Board of Trustees that had granted the California Charter Academy one of its charters, was later a board member for the Charter Academy and in the heyday of the California Charter Academy was riding high as chairman of the county board of supervisors and the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee. He dictated the California Charter Academy’s hiring policy, insisting that Cox hire several of his associates and family members who had no real educational qualifications. And Cox and the California Charter Academy made political donations to Postmus campaign funds totaling thousands of dollars.

The Sentinel has learned that Postmus and two of his associates, John Dino DeFazio and Jennifer Ruiz, sought to emulate in many respects the California Charter Academy/Educational Administrative Services Corporation/Maniaque Enterprises/Everything For Schools operation.

... Ruiz, a former educator with the Hesperia School District, was registered as the Adelanto Charter Academy’s principal. DeFazio, like Cox and Honeycutt, created two corporations, Professional Charter Management Inc. and Educational Development Inc. Hidden in the operation was Postmus, who advised Ruiz in the set up of the enterprise.

Postmus, whose political career foundered in January 2009 when he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and the hallucinogen Extacy, advised Ruiz to bill the Adelanto Charter Academy as one embracing conservative and Christian values to build character in students that were to be drawn mostly from impoverished home settings...

In November the audit was released. It showed the academy was plagued with fiscal mismanagement, poor or non-existent record-keeping, problems with the teacher to student ratios and unsanitary or unsafe food handling that put students at risk. Moreover, according to a summary of the audit put together by the Adelanto School District, DeFazio and others making money off the district were not providing what they were obliged to provide...

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 “Politicians & Their CroniesLooted Adelanto Charter Academy.”San Bernardino County Sentinel (CA), 6/12/2012

A number of current and former office holders, their associates and other politically connected figures, including ones currently facing charges in San Bernardino County’s corruption scandal, siphoned off money from the now shuttered Adelanto Charter Academy, documents obtained by the Sentinel show...

During the school’s operation, indicted and now convicted former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus, current Hesperia School District board member Anthony Riley, indicted former California Charter Academy founder Charles Steven Cox, Peggy Baker (Cox’s sister-in-law), San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt’s campaign fund, Mitzelfelt’s field representative Jessie Flores, indicted former assistant assessor Adam Aleman and indicted local businessman John “Dino” DeFazio all received money from the Adelanto Charter Academy or entities deriving money from the academy...

[More on California Charter Academy @ http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/05/california-charter-academy-60-schools.html]

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WayPoint Academy

“Former WayPoint school chief Barb Stellard's case moves to felony court.” 

MUSKEGON, MI -- Barbara Stellard, the former director of WayPoint Academy in Muskegon Township, will face trial on multiple felony counts after waiving her preliminary examination on charges she obtained state school aid under false pretenses and falsified school records...

Because she waived the hearing, Stellard's case was bound over to 14th Circuit Court for trial.

Charges against Stellard include two counts of obtaining between $1,000 and $20,000 by false pretenses, which is a felony punishable up to five years in prison. She is charged with seven counts of falsifying school records, which is a high-court misdemeanor and carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison plus suspension of a teaching certificate for five years...

The case stems from allegations Stellard inflated WayPoint's student counts so the district would receive state money for which it wasn't eligible. Stellard was head of the school from 2002 to 2010.

Her defense attorney, Terry J. Nolan, has said someone else falsified the records and Stellard just signed off on them without criminal intent...

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"Build a charter school, get a green card"

“The new U.S.visa rush: Build a charter school, get a green card.” Reuters, 10/12/2012

It's been a turbulent period for charter schools in the United States, with financial analysts raising concerns about their stability and regulators in several states shutting down schools for poor performance.

The volatility has made it tough for startup schools to get financing.

But an unlikely source of new capital has emerged to fill the gap: foreign investors.

Wealthy individuals from as far away as China, Nigeria, Russia and Australia are spending tens of millions of dollars to build classrooms, libraries, basketball courts and science labs for American charter schools...

And in Florida, state business development officials say foreign investment in charter schools is poised to triple next year, to $90 million.

The reason? Under a federal program known as EB-5, wealthy foreigners can in effect buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and their families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. In the past two decades, much of the investment has gone into commercial real-estate projects, like luxury hotels, ski resorts and even gas stations.

Lately, however, enterprising brokers have seen a golden opportunity to match cash-starved charter schools with cash-flush foreigners in investment deals that benefit both...

... Last month, Fitch Ratings warned it was likely to downgrade bonds backed by charter schools because the sector is volatile and the schools are highly leveraged. Such risks mean charter-school debt is typically considered speculative, rather than investment grade, said Eric Kim, a director at Fitch Ratings.

Meanwhile, the IRS has signaled it plans closer scrutiny of charter schools' tax-exempt status if they rely on for-profit management companies to provide their classroom space and run their academic programs, Hall said. He sent his clients a long memo this summer warning that the stepped-up IRS oversight could put some at "significant risk."

If that weren't enough to make investors wary, several well-known charter schools have run into significant legal and fiscal hurdles in recent months...

All told, about 15 percent of the 6,700 charter schools that have been launched in the United States in the past two decades have since closed, primarily because of financial troubles, according to the Center for Education Reform, which supports charter schools...

An investor forum in Chinalast spring, for instance, touted U.S. charter schools as a nearly fool-proof investment because they can count on a steady stream of government funding to stay afloat, according to a transcript posted on a Chinese website...

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Advantage Academy of Hillsborough

“Plant City charter school principal with multiple DUIs steps down.” The Tampa Tribune (FL), 10/18/2012

TAMPA -- A charter school principal with a history of drunken driving arrests has resigned, and the operators of the school will change a key part of their hiring process in the wake of a Tampa Tribune investigation.

Todd Haughey resigned his job at Advantage Academy of Hillsborough after it was learned he had four DUI convictions in Indiana and Ohio between 1987 and 2002.

Those legal problems were discovered by the Tribune after the 44-year-old's arrest this month in St. Petersburg on a drunken driving charge.

... The board and Charter School Associates, operator of the school, say they were unaware of the incidents until a reporter inquired about them...

From now on, the operator of the charter school will change the forms it gives prospective employees to fill out. Charter schools are privately run but publicly funded.

Current forms ask applicants if they have been convicted of a crime in the past seven years. People applying for a job in the Hillsborough County School District, meanwhile, are asked if they have ever been convicted of a crime...

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Manatee School of Arts & Sciences

“Manatee school's offer raises eyebrows.” FOX 13 News, 10/9/2012 -

Sure, most kids love video games, but you don't see many schools encouraging them, much less buying them for students.

But that's just what a charter school in Manatee County is doing. Over the last two years, enrollment at the Manatee School of Arts and Sciences has dropped by nearly 40 percent.

So six weeks into the new school year, they ran an ad in the Bradenton Herald, offering what some call a bribe -- switch schools by Thursday and get a free Nintendo DS, one of the most popular gaming devices for kids...

[Julie Aranibar, a Manatee County School Board Member] sits on the Charter Review Committee, and says the offer's timing is suspicious, enticing kids to switch before Monday, when final student counts determine how much money schools get from the state...

The school's principal did not return FOX 13's calls Tuesday.

State officials say some schools have offered students incentives – including cash -- to do better on tests like the FCAT, but not for boosting enrollment.

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