Martin Behrman Charter School

“Algiers school coach, accused of statutory rape, now faces more serious allegation.”The Times-Picayune (LA), 2/6/2013

An Algiers elementary school coach accused last week of the statutory rape of a studentis now facing a more serious allegation. Police suspect that Frank Norris, 23, began abusing the unidentified student in April 2010, when she was 11 and in the sixth grade
; detectives booked him Tuesday with one count of aggravated rape, which is punishable upon conviction by mandatory life imprisonment.

According to court papers, the coach and academic interventionist at Martin Behrman Charter School approached the girl for the first time while she was on campus, sitting outdoors. Norris led her to the band room, took his clothes off, disrobed her and raped her, police allege...

On Jan. 30, the girl's mother called police and told officers that she had learned, by reading her daughter's diary, that her daughter was having sex with Norris. Detectives immediately interviewed the girl, and she said that she had been having consensual sex with Norris since last year's softball season at Behrman, police said.

Norris was booked that day with two counts of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile, defined in Louisiana as a crime in which "a person who is 17 years of age or older has sexual intercourse, with consent, with a person who is 13 years of age or older but less than 17 years of age." But on Jan. 31, the girl informed police that Norris had been having sex with her for more than two years, court records state...

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New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy

“Military academy’s background check didn’t turn up employee’s prior theft charge.” The Lens (LA), 4/23/2013

The man police are investigating for theft and fraud involving $31,000 in school funds has been accused of taking public education dollars before.

Darrell K. Sims, 54, a former business manager at New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy in Algiers, was accused of misappropriating $1,642 from the Terrebonne Parish School Board in 1996-97. He was a teacher at the time, according to a school spokeswoman.

It was one of a number of arrests in Sims’ past that the military academy’s top school administrator said did not show up in an employee background check conducted when Sims was hired in 2011.

That could be because the school’s background check, required by the state but conducted by a private company, encompassed only arrests in the last seven years. The state offers a background search that goes back further. The state’s more expansive background check also turns up charges, like the Terrebonne one, that are resolved through pretrial intervention. It does not appear that the school’s check covered such incidents...

Sims is now employed at another school, Joseph A. Craig Charter School in Treme, as a data manager...

Over the years Sims has been arrested several times on charges of writing worthless checks, according to court and police records...

Davis, the head of the military academy, said that he didn’t know of Sims’ past legal matters because the school’s background check went back only seven years and didn’t turn up anything.

NOMMA contracts with Delta Administrative Services for its human resources needs, Davis said. Delta contracted with a firm called SingleSource to do the seven-year background check for a fee of $30.

The state Department of Public Safety & Corrections conducts a criminal background check for schools for $42.50, searching state and federal databases for all arrests for which fingerprints were collected, including those resolved through pretrial intervention before a conviction can take place...

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a local nonprofit working to eliminate public corruption, said it is in a school’s best interest to know as much as possible about the people it hires — and that is precisely why such information is available to schools.

“For $40, you’re using a law enforcement database that’s always going to be better than a private database,” Goyeneche said. “I think every school system and every school should utilize the law enforcement database. You can’t have too much information on someone that is going to have access to children.”...

Davis said that when Sims was asked in writing on July 7, 2011, whether he’d ever been convicted of a crime — including “but not limited to pleas of guilty, nollo contendre, no contest, adjudication withheld, and pretrial intervention programs” — he checked a box that said “no.”...

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Joseph A. Craig Charter School

“Military academy’s background check didn’t turn up employee’s prior theft charge.” The Lens (LA), 4/23/2013

The man police are investigating for theft and fraud involving $31,000 in school funds has been accused of taking public education dollars before.

Darrell K. Sims, 54, a former business manager at New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy in Algiers, was accused of misappropriating $1,642 from the Terrebonne Parish School Board in 1996-97. He was a teacher at the time, according to a school spokeswoman.

It was one of a number of arrests in Sims’ past that the military academy’s top school administrator said did not show up in an employee background check conducted when Sims was hired in 2011.

That could be because the school’s background check, required by the state but conducted by a private company, encompassed only arrests in the last seven years. The state offers a background search that goes back further. The state’s more expansive background check also turns up charges, like the Terrebonne one, that are resolved through pretrial intervention. It does not appear that the school’s check covered such incidents...

Sims is now employed at another school, Joseph A. Craig Charter School in Treme, as a data manager...

Over the years Sims has been arrested several times on charges of writing worthless checks, according to court and police records...

Davis, the head of the military academy, said that he didn’t know of Sims’ past legal matters because the school’s background check went back only seven years and didn’t turn up anything.

NOMMA contracts with Delta Administrative Services for its human resources needs, Davis said. Delta contracted with a firm called SingleSource to do the seven-year background check for a fee of $30.

The state Department of Public Safety & Corrections conducts a criminal background check for schools for $42.50, searching state and federal databases for all arrests for which fingerprints were collected, including those resolved through pretrial intervention before a conviction can take place...

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a local nonprofit working to eliminate public corruption, said it is in a school’s best interest to know as much as possible about the people it hires — and that is precisely why such information is available to schools.

“For $40, you’re using a law enforcement database that’s always going to be better than a private database,” Goyeneche said. “I think every school system and every school should utilize the law enforcement database. You can’t have too much information on someone that is going to have access to children.”...

Davis said that when Sims was asked in writing on July 7, 2011, whether he’d ever been convicted of a crime — including “but not limited to pleas of guilty, nollo contendre, no contest, adjudication withheld, and pretrial intervention programs” — he checked a box that said “no.”...

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Lusher Charter School

“NOPD says feds now looking into 2011 embezzlement from Lusher Charter School.” The Lens (LA), 4/17/2013

The New Orleans Police Department is working with federal investigators in an embezzlement case from 2011 at Lusher Charter School that so far has led to no charges against the admitted embezzler...

Lauren Hightower, a former accountant at the Uptown school, was discovered by administrators to have forged signatures on checks adding up to $25,800. The investigation into her activities is focused on the forgeries...

Hightower was fired from her post; she later returned the money. School officials said she reported herself to the State Board of Certified Public Accountants, which licenses CPAs. Her license has been revoked, according to the agency’s website.

Hightower has not been charged with theft or embezzlement. The detective on the case, Michael Riley, told the Lens in March that the speedy return of the money by Hightower’s lawyer rendered the theft charge a “moot issue.”

... Riley has been talking with a representative from the Inspector General wing of the U.S. Department of Education, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Knight and the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, over how to proceed...

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Benjamin Mays Preparatory School

“Ben Mays families lament loss of community as charter is pulled.” The Lens (LA), 2/14/2013

[Benjamin Mays Preparatory School] is one of four charters in transition this year. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted in December to strip the school of its charter because of low academic performance. Three other charters, Pride College Prep, Crocker Arts and Technology School and Intercultural Charter School, also were not renewed. But other operators agreed to run those schools, giving enrolled students priority. Though another school will be at the Mays site next year — Akili Academy — Akili is moving from its former location, not expanding, and it will enroll its own students first. That means Mays’ students will be dispersed to schools across the city...

Critics, such as education advocate Ashana Bigard, argue that shuttering schools for any reason uproots families and can be traumatic.

“The whole model of closing and replacing a school is the opposite of stability,” which is key to a child’s success, Bigard said...

Mays principal Shanda Gentry sees the school’s closure as unavoidably disruptive for its enrollment of about 360 students, many of them low-income residents of the nearby Desire neighborhood...

RSD officials, as well as representatives from Akili and other nearby schools, were on hand to answer questions at a Feb. 5 school fair catering to Mays families, but the event was sparsely attended. Kids who don’t make the cut at Akili will face sometimes lengthy commuting times — and in some cases, so will their parents, those who have cars...

“Our population … we’re just as bonded to them as they are to us,” she said. Parents sometimes even ask teachers for help with a utility bill. “ ‘My lights are off. Can you help me? My water’s off,’ ” [Jasmine Graves, who has been a middle-school teacher at Mays] said...

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Delhi Charter School

“ACLU targets anti-pregnancy rule at Louisiana charter school.” Associated Press, 8/7/2012

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana threatened Tuesday to sue a northeastern Louisiana charter school if it doesn't change rules that keep pregnant students out of the classroom and require girls under suspicion of being pregnant to be tested. The four-paragraph "Student Pregnancy Policy" in Delhi Charter School's policy manualsays that if a suspected girl refuses to take a pregnancy test, she can be removed from class or the school.

That violates the U.S. Constitution and federal laws against sexual discrimination, state ACLU executive director Marjorie R. Esman said...

The pregnancy policy, on page 130 of the manual, says pregnant students who want to stay in the school must study at home.

"If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant," it states. The school can also choose which doctor the student will see.

Students who refuse to take a pregnancy test must either study at home or find another school.

The requirements are part of "an environment in which all students will learn and exhibit acceptable character traits," it says.

Title IX, the section of the 1972 federal education law requiring equal opportunities for both sexes in education, mandates that "pregnant students are entitled to an education free from discrimination," Esman wrote. She said it allows home instruction for pregnant students, but "participation ... must be completely voluntary and comparable to those offered to non-pregnant students."

It violates the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause because "boys who are expecting children -- or who are suspected of having engaged in sexual activity -- are not similarly treated," she wrote...

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Robert Russa Moton Charter School

"New Orleans charter school is accused of cheating to help 4th-graders pass LEAP tests.” The Times-Picayune (LA), 8/26/2012

Staff at the Robert Russa Moton Charter School, one of the highest-ranked open-enrollment schools in New Orleans, violated state testing policy to help fourth-grade students pass standardized exams last year, a district investigation found. The school denies any cheating took place.

Correspondence among school, district and state officials obtained through a public records request detail allegations brought by anonymous whistle-blowers, among them a charge -- apparently substantiated -- that fourth-graders were shown writing prompts for the state's LEAP exam ahead of time to give them a leg up.


In response to the district's findings, the independent charter board that governs Moton hired the law firm Adams and Reese to conduct a separate investigation, which turned up no evidence of wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, officials for the Orleans Parish School Board sent Moton's board a letter this spring listing five "non-negotiable" steps the school must take or risk losing its contract to run the campus. Portions of the letter were heavily redacted by district staff before they were made public to protect the identity of Moton employees. But the list of "corrective actions" includes a demand that Moton fire at least one staff member and take "disciplinary action" with others...

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New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School

“Oprah-Backed Charter School Denying Disabled Collides with Law.” Bloomberg News, Sep 20, 2011

When talk-show host Oprah Winfrey handed a $1 million check last September to the principal of New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy, 200 students watched the broadcast from a church and celebrated with a brass band.

Lawrence Melrose, a ninth-grader with learning and emotional disabilities, sat next door in a school office. The staff was concerned his fighting and cursing could be an embarrassment, said Shelton Joseph, his great uncle. Because he has trouble communicating, Lawrence needed intensive counseling and speech therapy, which the school didn’t provide, Joseph said. He was repeatedly suspended and told he couldn’t take the school bus with other kids, according to his lawyer.

The education of 16-year-old Lawrence represents a common complaint about privately run, taxpayer-financed charter schools: They often exclude children with serious disabilities or deny them the help they need, violating federal laws.

“They left me,” Joseph recalled the boy telling him on the day of the Winfrey celebration. “They left me out.”

Along with the academy supported by Oprah’s Angel Network - - which the entertainer used to raise money from the public -- New Orleans charter schools accused of discrimination include those that are favored charities of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)’s Walton family and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Shunning special-education students helps school budgets since the average disabled child costs twice as much to serve as a nondisabled one, said Thomas Hehir, who oversaw federal special-education programs under President Bill Clinton. The practice also improves the reported academic results of schools because children with disabilities often have lower scores on standardized tests, he said...

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“Teenager Committs Suicide Due To High Stakes Test Scores.” WDSU (LA), 7/5/2011: This is a video news report.

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Gentilly Terrace Charter School

“New Orleans teenager arrested after gun goes off in backpack.” The Times-Picayune (LA), 9/12/2011

There's a reason some schools in New Orleans require see-through or mesh backpacks, and this is it: At about 9 a.m. on Monday, a handgun that a 13-year-old at Gentilly Terrace Elementary School had stashed in his bag went off accidentally on school grounds.

No one was hurt. But police arrested the teenager and planned on booking him with weapons possession and illegal discharge of a firearm, said officer Shereese Harper, a police spokeswoman. The school is located at 4720 Painters St.

There's no evidence the case represents any new trend. Guns have long been a scourge among male teenagers in New Orleans. Yet it's at least the second gun-related incident on a city campus since the new school year opened just a few weeks ago. Police were called to Reed Elementary [a charter school operated by ReNEW] in eastern New Orleans last month after an eighth-grader brought a pistol to school.

Neither of the students appeared to have plans to shoot anyone. At Reed, the teenager turned over the gun voluntarily when a behavioral specialist sensed that something was wrong, and school officials said the weapon didn't appear to be functional.

The incident Monday at Gentilly Terrace seemed right out of a cautionary tale about the child who finds his dad's gun.

Vera Triplett, the chief operations officer for the Capital One-New Beginnings Charter School Network, which runs Gentilly Terrace, said the student was showing the pistol off to classmates in a corner of the school yard when it somehow went off.

"He didn't bring it to school to harm anyone," Triplett said.

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Sarah T. Reed Elementary charter school

“Eighth grader arrested with gun on Reed Elementary School campus.” WWLTV (LA), 8/22/2011

NEW ORLEANS – An eighth-grade student at Reed Elementary School in New Orleans East was arrested Monday afternoon after a teacher discovered an unloaded gun in his bag, school officials said.

Bill Murphy, the chief academic officer at Reed, confirmed to Eyewitness News that the gun was discovered shortly after 1 p.m., when a teacher noticed the student, whom he would not identify, was acting out of character.

The teacher noticed other students seemed to sense some sort of trouble, Murphy said, which led the teacher to approach the student, and ask him to search his bookbag. The teacher noticed the student was holding the bag close to his body, Murphy said.

The teacher asked if the student would allow the bag to be searched, to which the student agreed, Murphy said. When the bag was opened, the teacher found the unloaded gun inside. He was asked if it was his, and he said it was, according to school officials.

The student was taken to meet with school administrators and his parents and police were notified, Murphy said.

Murphy said the incident was handled exactly the way school policy dictates, and “90 percent of the students” probably had no idea what had happened. Classes resumed as normal.

Reed Elementary is a charter school operated by the Renew Charter Management Organization.

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Miller-McCoy Academy

“New Orleans charter testing drama casts light on how cheating allegations are handled.” The Times-Picayune, 08/19/2011

Last year, several teachers at Miller-McCoy Academy in eastern New Orleans told Recovery School District officials they feared someone on the school's staff had opened high-stakes exams in advance so students could be prepped on a few actual test questions.

An RSD investigation concluded some kind of cheating had likely occurred at the all-boys middle and high school. Then, Miller-McCoy's board of directors conducted its own investigation, which found no evidence of wrongdoing. In the end, the conflicting findings of the two probes were never fully reconciled.

The handling of the matter raises important questions about how cheating allegations are investigated. In most Louisiana school districts, central office personnel handle the task and report the results to state officials, often with a recommendation about whether to void scores.

There's a natural conflict there, experts say, in that most school districts are less than eager to announce they've found corruption in their midst.

At charter schools, the conflict might be more acute, some say, because charter boards play a role in investigations. Board members can be recruited by a school's administrators, which might make it even more difficult for them to take a hard look at allegations.

"If you are committed to finding out the truth, you need individuals who are not connected in any way to the individuals involved," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.

In Louisiana's current setup, there is "a conflict of interest all the way up the line," and not just as it relates to charter schools, said Gregory Cizek, a professor of educational measurement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "No one has a really strong interest in investigating in a really searching manner," he said.

That's why some states have started putting such investigations under the jurisdiction of the state attorney general's office or another independent entity, he said...

The Miller-McCoy investigation began in the spring of 2010 when several staff members alleged that, just days before students were to take high-stakes tests, school administrators had given teachers math questions or essay topics that were uncannily similar to those that appeared on the state exam days later. Three staff members came in to meet with RSD personnel, while two others provided interviews; all told, nearly 20 percent of the school's teachers raised concerns. The administrators asked teachers to use the questions to prepare students for the exam, according to the RSD report on the matter and interviews with three of the teachers...

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Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School

“News 2 Investigation uncovers lawsuits involving Kenilworth Charter School.” WBRZ (LA), 7/28/2011

BATON ROUGE- Two lawsuits single-out a charter school in Baton Rouge, and the company that runs it, for abuse and mistreatment.

Teachers allege discrimination, and at least one parent says her child was assaulted and treated unfairly.

Kenilworth Science and Technology is run by the Pelican Educational Foundation, which also runs Abramson Charter in New Orleans. Abramson was closed two weeks ago to investigate allegations of a similar nature. The state expanded its investigation less than a week later to include Pelican and Kenilworth.

At the end of the 2009-2010 school year, three teachers told a court they were wrongfully terminated from Kenilworth Charter School. They say they were discriminated against because of their gender and their religion and they were harassed until they were fired.

This month, a mother filed a lawsuit detailing, what she calls, neglect and mistreatment of her Kenilworth student. The neglect included one teacher ignoring the child's weak bladder condition, forcing her to urinate on herself, and sit in the urine until class was over.

The mistreatment involved the child being punished for hitting another student just to stop him from touching her inappropriately.

In both instances, and in several others like them, Dr. Shirl Gilbert, who was in charge of charter schools in the Baton Rouge area at the time, tried to help.

He said, "While I think there might be hints of discrimination with relation to some of the actions that Kenilworth administrators took, in every instance, they were able to point to some substantive performance inadequacy that they said was the reason."

Gilbert says after concerns were not addressed, by the school or managers at the charter group, and finding questionable religious practices on campus, exclusively for Turkish staff members, he went to then State Superintendent Paul Pastorek...

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“Probe opened at school; BR charter has link to troubled site.” The Advocate (LA) 7/21/11

State Department of Education officials said Wednesday night they will launch an investigation of Kenilworth Science and Technology Charter School.

The Baton Rouge school is operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation.

The foundation also runs Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in New Orleans, which was closed last week amid allegations of sexual abuse and other problems.

The fact that both schools are run by Pelican means that operations at Kenilworth need to be reviewed, said Ollie Tyler, acting state superintendent of education...

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Read more about Abramson Science and Technology Charter School HERE.

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Abramson Science and Technology Charter School

“State board of education votes to revoke Abramson's charter.” The Times-Picayune, 8/3/2011

The state board of education voted to revoke its contract with Abramson Science and Technology Charter School in eastern New Orleans on Wednesday, a step that could mean new management for the school and a potential legal battle with the nonprofit group that has run the campus until now.

The Pelican Educational Foundation, which founded the charter school in 2007, lost its right to operate the school by a vote of six to one at the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE...

...BESE decided to vote with the recommendation of acting State Superintendent Ollie Tyler, who told the board that early findings of a state investigation launched last month showed "a threat to the safety, health and welfare of students at Abramson."

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The exhibits from the preliminary investigation are @ http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/18613.pdf

Sample excerpt from Exhibit 5, pg. 45 of pdf

False College Admittances:

"Near the end of the year many students who had not previously been accepted into any college began announcing they had been accepted into North American College. Surprisingly, students who were failing their English and Math classes and who would not graduate from Abramson on time were still being accepted to North American College. The principal used these acceptances as proof that Abramson was successful. The school that accepted these seniors who did not graduate from high school, North American College, is where Mr. Dokmen will be working this fall."

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"Records show glaring faults at school with ties to Turkish charter network.” Times-Picayune (LA) 7/15/2011 

Inci Akpinar, the vice president of a company called Atlas Texas Construction & Trading, sat down with an official from the Louisiana Department of Education a little more than a year ago and made him an offer.

..."I have twenty-five thousand dollars to fix this problem: twenty thousand for you and five for me."

At the time, Dunbar was investigating numerous complaints against Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in eastern New Orleans...

Dunbar -- having declined to take money from Akpinar -- recommended more than a year ago that the state board of education yank Abramson's charter...

But after questioning by the The Times-Picayune, acting State Superintendent of Education Ollie Tyler late Friday wrote to the state board asking it to prevent the school from opening in the fall, citing problems discovered during the original investigation and a new information about an incident between two young students that was possibly sexual in nature...

That an executive from Atlas Texas, a Houston-based contractor, would speak on the school's behalf points to the somewhat opaque connections that link Abramson with other schools and businesses founded by Turkish expatriates. Atlas has won numerous contracts in the past from a Texas-based school operator called the Cosmos Foundation...

Similar allegations have cropped up in other states where the Cosmos Foundation operates. The group runs a charter network called the Harmony Schools in Texas, where they've encountered unfounded accusations that they somehow promote Islamic extremism, largely because of an interest by some of the group's leaders in the movement begun by a Turkish religious scholar named Fethullah Gulen.

Both Cosmos and Pelican have disavowed any official religious links, though Abramson teachers on a school-sponsored trip to Turkey received pamphlets on the Gulen movement...

In an email dated Feb. 2, 2010, and signed by [four teachers] to head of the state's charter office: "Though we are fully aware of the significant amount of autonomy given to charter schools, we are now concerned that this autonomy is being abused to the point that students are being forced to engage in unethical acts."

They also reported a "general feeling of fear" among the school's staff because of what appeared to be retaliation against teachers, parents and students who had spoken up about the school's practices in the past...

But the state investigation appeared to back up much of what the teachers had written in their note...

...several students confirmed they had done little or none of the work that went into their science projects...

...[students] described practice on items that were very close to the items on the test."...

The state audit also turned up a significant lack of resources for special-needs students...

There were also complaints from teachers and students about the difficulty of communicating with some of the foreign staff...

Still, Dunbar, the state's academic advisor for charter schools, described a series of bizarre encounters as he and others carried out the audit that suggest a network of associations at Abramson extending beyond Louisiana...

Dunbar concluded in the same memo that the state board of education should revoke school's the charter...

Ultimately, the state decided to renew Abramson's charter for one year, contingent on the school carrying out a detailed corrective action plan...

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“Abramson Charter in eastern New Orleans shut down amid TP investigation into startlingmisconduct.” Times-Picayune (LA) 7/15/2011

The state's sudden shutdown of Abramson Science and Technology Charter School over revelations of a potential bribery attempt and other incidents came in part because of inquiries made by The Times-Picayune over the past few weeks.

Penny Dastugue, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, wrote to the head of the nonprofit that runs Abramson on Friday evening to say the board will close the school until the state can complete an investigation. The move came just a few hours after acting State Superintendent Ollie Tyler contacted board members to recommend that they shutter the school in eastern New Orleans while the state looks into the allegations...

Both incidents have come to light as a result of interviews and public information requests made by newspaper.

Several board members expressed alarm on Friday that information about the state's audit last year did not come before BESE ahead of a vote the board took last summer to renew Abramson's charter. The state education department recommended that BESE give the school a one-year renewal with a "corrective action plan" to address deficiencies in special education services. But the board had not seen [a] memo about the offer of money. And they hadn't seen records that provide accounts of classrooms going unstaffed for weeks at a time and potential cheating in science fair competitions...

[BESE member Louella Givens] and Linda Johnson, a BESE member from Plaquemine, also traveled to Turkey this spring at the invitation of the Pelican Foundation before the full findings of the state audit came to light.

Tevfik Eski, Pelican's CEO, denied inviting BESE members on the trip. But a copy of the invitation obtained by The Times-Picayune shows that it was signed by Eski...

Johnson said that she paid for her own flight but that some of her hotel expenses were picked up by the Texas Turkish American Chamber of Commerce...

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Details about active and attempted Gulen charter schools in Louisiana.
• News story about Harmony Public Schools, AKA Harmony Science Academy schools / CosmosFoundation. 
• Information about Gulen charter schools’ H1B visa applications.

Read More

Gulen charter schools in Louisiana

STATE	# ACTIVE	# PENDING	# INACTIVE*	TOTAL
LA	1	0	7	8

* Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status

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TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN 2010-2011 = 1038 STUDENTS

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SCHOOLS

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KENILWORTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CHARTER SCHOOL
Status	ACTIVE, opened 2008-2009; Kenilworth Middle School conversion
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Authorizer	Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (under the Recovery School District)
Location/District	7600 Boone Drive, Baton Rouge / East Baton Rouge Parish School System
Website	http://www.kenilworthst.org/
Enrollment	Grades 6-8; 2010-11 enrollment = 447
Site leader	Hasan Sazci

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ABRAMSON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CHARTER SCHOOL
Status	CHARTER REVOKED in August 2011; operations transferred to non-Pelican Educational Foundation management; originally opened 2007-2008.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Authorizer	Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (under the Recovery School District)
Location/District	5552 Read Blvd., New Orleans / New Orleans Public Schools
Website	http://www.abramsonst.org/
Enrollment	Grades K-12; 2010-11 enrollment = 591
Notes	Cuneyt Dokmen (principal in February 2011); Originally called Pelican Math & Science School; Learn more about Abramson Science and Technology School scandal HERE.

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LINEAR MIDDLE SCHOOL CONVERSION
Status	INACTIVE: Proposal submitted to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in January 2009.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Location	Shreveport

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BANKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CONVERSION
Status	INACTIVE: Proposal submitted to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in January 2009.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Location	Baton Rouge

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CRESTWORTH MIDDLE SCHOOL CONVERSION
Status	INACTIVE: Proposal submitted to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in January 2009.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Location	Baton Rouge

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KENILWORTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL EXPANSION
Status	INACTIVE: The National Association of Charter School Authorizers’ recommended for denial of the application to the State Authorized School Oversight Committee of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary in December 2010.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Authorizer	Louisiana Department of Education
Notes	This was a proposed expansion of a middle school in Baton Rouge (Kenilworth Science & Technology Charter School)

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PELICAN EXCELLENCE ORLEANS K-12
Status	INACTIVE: The National Association of Charter School Authorizers’ recommended for denial of the application to the State Authorized School Oversight Committee of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary in December 2010.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Authorizer	Louisiana Department of Education
Location	This school was proposed for New Orleans.

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PELICAN EXCELLENCE ACADEMY
Status	UNKNOWN: Application submitted in February 2010.
Management	Pelican Educational Foundation, Inc.
Authorizer	Jefferson Parish School Board
Location	This school was proposed for Metairie.

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MANAGEMENT

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PELICAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
Federal Tax ID	EIN 203801713
Website	http://pelicanfoundation.org/
History	Started by Tevfik Kosar, an assistant professor of Computer Science at LSU. “The school was developed in 2006 as the brainchild of University math, science and technology professors who felt the need to contribute more to elementary education.”
Individuals involved	Names appearing on IRS Form 990s (2005 to 2009) & website: Abdullah Zorba, Adem Ozel, Amanniyaz Niyazmuradov (AKA Aman Niyaz), Bicer Hasan, Cuneyt Dokemen, Cynthia Bryant, Elif Ulupinar, Eugene Kennedy, Hasan Sazci, Karen Fontenot, Mehmet F. Cihan, Mustafa Guvercin, Nihat Bayhan, Orhan Kizilkaya, Richard Webb, Tevfik Kosar, and Yunus Bicici.

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 “PARTNER ORGANIZATION”

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COSMOS FOUNDATION / HARMONY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Federal Tax ID	EIN 76-0615245
Website	http://www.cosmostx.org/
Services	Cosmos gets 5% of Pelican's annual state funding because of their "Support Service Agreement."
Individuals involved	Names appearing on IRS Form 990s (2002 to 2009): Ali Tekin, Bilal Akin, Burhanettin Kuruscu, Cengizhan Keskin, Cocksun Cetinkaya, Ellen A. MacDonald, Fatih Yigit, Gokturk Tunc, Ibrahim Sel, Iker Gure, Ismet S. Isik, Kadir Almus, Kudbettin Aksoy, Levent Bulut, Lynn Mitchell, Mehmet Okumus, Mustafa Atik, Mustafa Guvercin, Mustafa Ozen, Nihat Guvercin, Oner Ulvi Celepicikay, Ozgur Ozer, Selahattin Aydin, Soner Tarim, Tevik Eski, Umit Pecin, Yetkin Yildirim

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Learn more about the Cosmos Foundation / Harmony Public Schools HERE and HERE and HERE.
• Form 990s for Pelican Educational Foundation reveal that Prestige Commercial Cleaning & Construction was paid $116,766 for custodial services in 2008 and $532,717 for cleaning services in 2009 (two year total = $649,483). Names associated with that business are Ali Tuncer and Ufuk Tuncer.
• Also, the Cosmos Foundation was paid $238,595 in 2008 and $289,796 in 2009 for management consulting and teacher training (two year total = $528,391).
• Karen Fontenot, vice president of Pelican Educational Foundation, stated at a dinner reception during a Gulen conference in Amsterdam (October 2010), “I’m not a Muslim and I’m not a Turk but I believe that I am a member of the Hizmet Movement…I’m on the advisory board of the schools, the Gulen schools in Louisiana.”

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