STEAM Academy

“STEAM Academy of Winston-Salem relinquishes charter.” Winston-Salem Journal (NC), 4/4/2013

... The State Board of Education on Thursday accepted the voluntary relinquishment of the operating charter that allowed the STEAM Academy of Winston-Salem to operate.

The Winston-Salem school has seen its enrollment plunge by more than 70 percent over the last seven years while the school's debts skyrocketed. Its operators are voluntarily giving up the charter.

Last month, it was reported that the school's general fund was more than $700,000 in debt. Reports from as far back as April 2011 show the school was in financial trouble.

The school had a funded average daily membership, or enrollment, of 102 students, compared to 153 in 2010-2011 and 379 in 2006-2007...

About four dozen charter schools have been disbanded since the mid-1990s, when they started operating free of many of the rules governing most public schools.

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“STEAM Academy in financial trouble.” Winston-Salem Journal (NC), 3/11/2013

A Winston-Salem charter school is once again in hot water with the State Board of Education.

State officials are questioning whether downtown’s STEAM Academy has enough money to keep the doors open for another year. A report presented to the board last week shows the school’s general fund is more than $700,000 in the hole. The school added more than half a million dollars in debt in just the last year.

According to the state board’s report, there is substantial doubt about the school’s ability to continue. The school has been placed on disciplinary status for financial noncompliance. It is the most serious stage of financial warning. According to state board policy, schools may be dictated to undergo corrective action or even have their charter revoked...

It’s not the first time the STEAM Academy’s finances have been called into question. Concerns about academic performance, governance and financial solvency have plagued the school for several years. State Board of Education reports from as far back as April 2011 show the school struggling financially. A sharp drop in enrollment is causing many of the school’s problems, Medley said...

The STEAM Academy opened as the Downtown Middle School in 1997. Its charter was renewed for another 10 years in 2007. The school changed its name to the STEAM Academy, emphasizing its curriculum focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts and math in 2011 as an attempt to rebrand and combat declining enrollment. The school originally did not report the name change to the State Board of Education and was put in governance noncompliance for not seeking approval first. The name change was subsequently approved, as was a contract with the Mosaica, a national company brought in to oversee the school.

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Troubled school's principal fired previously over testing scandal.” Winston-Salem Journal (NC), 4/9/2012

The principal of STEAM Academy, a Winston-Salem charter school facing a do-or-die set of standardized tests this spring, was fired in 2009 after a Virginia state investigation blamed her in a testing scandal there...

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Union Academy Charter School

“Fort Mill woman accused of having sex with student.” WSOCTV (NC), 9/12/2013

MONROE, N.C. A Union Academy Charter School teacher accused of having sex with a student was arrested Thursday afternoon.

Diana Swanson Farnell is charged with one count of sex offenses with a student.

Police said Farnell, 28, from Fort Mill, had sex with a 17-year-old male student...

In February, a Union Academy basketball coach was fired after he was arrested for sending in sexually inappropriate text messages to a teenage boy he met while working at a group home.

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Quality Education Academy

“'A factory of excellence'? Charter school’s international basketball team raises oversight questions.” NC Policy Watch, 1/28/2013

A Winston-Salem charter school has become an unlikely basketball powerhouse in recent years, winning three national high school championships and sending more than a dozen former players on to Division 1 colleges.

But the success of Quality Education Academy‘s boys basketball team rests on a strategy prohibited at most public schools—recruiting top players throughout the nation and world.

It also offers a window into the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s struggles to hold charter schools accountable as the schools become a larger piece of the state’s public education system.

An N.C. Policy Watch investigation found two-thirds of the players on Quality Education Academy’s basketball rosters from 2008 to present came from other states and nations to attend the K-12 school. Their educations were subsidized by taxpayers who sent $13.2 million in state, federal and local funding to the school for the same time period, according to state education estimates and budgets provided by the school.

The investigation also found that the N.C. Department of Public Instruction failed to follow up on its own 2011 probe into funding and enrollment issues at the charter school.

Questions about Quality Education Academy’s basketball program highlight criticisms and challenges DPI faces in overseeing charter schools, the privately-run and publicly-funded schools poised to grow rapidly with strong backing from the Republican-led state legislature and Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

The basketball program at Quality Education Academy (QEA) is a set-up impossible to recreate at most North Carolina public schools.

North Carolina specifically prohibits recruitment of students for athletics across school district lines, much less state and national boundaries.

But QEA’s status as a charter school means it can opt out of joining the N.C. High School Athletic Association, which enforces the N.C. recruitment rule for public schools. Instead, QEA and a handful of private high schools with strong basketball programs formed their own athletic association in 2011, the Greater Carolina High School Athletic Association. The new league allows coaches to recruit players from elsewhere, just not from the six schools that form the association, according to the association’s rules.

Even though the small charter school has fewer than 100 high school students, QEA has attracted basketball players from countries like Nigeria, Serbia, Canada and the Bahamas and states including California, Michigan, Georgia and Virginia since the basketball program began in 2008. Parents signed over temporary guardianship to Isaac Pitts Jr., a basketball coach with a criminal past and a side recruiting business, according to documents obtained from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction through a public records request...

The state education agency began looking at QEA closely in January of 2010, after three Serbian students sent June Atkinson, the state superintendent of schools, an emailbegging for help. The students, who left their Balkan nation to attend the Winston-Salem school, were instructed to pay Pitts, the coach, $4,000 each to attend the school, according to a copy of the email obtained by N.C. Policy Watch. Johnson, the school’s CEO, responded that the students came as part of a “cultural diversity and exchange” program and had agreed to the fee associated with a separate recruiting operation Pitts was involved in...

BE SURE TO READ THE REST!

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Cameron Creek Charter School (attempt)

“Charlotte charter school can’t open because of plagiarism allegation.” Charlotte Observer (NC), 3/7/2013

Cameron Creek Charter won’t be allowed to open in east Charlotte this year, based on accusations that it cut and pasted large parts of its application from another Charlotte proposal.

The N.C. Board of Education voted Thursday to deny that school a charter...

The board had granted preliminary approval to 25 schools last year. But Cameron Creek’s application came under scrutiny in February after another would-be charter operator told state officials that the Cameron Creek application appeared to have been copied from hers. In several instances, the other school’s name was left in the Cameron Creek application...

Thursday the state board voted not to issue Cameron Creek a charter. Joel Medley, director of the N.C. Office of Charter Schools, said the vote was based on the plagiarized application and on more recent news that one of Cameron Creek’s board members, who is a lawyer, had been disbarred in another state...

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More Information

Paper Trail: Details of Cameron Creek dispute

N.C. Office of Charter Schools

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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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East Wake Academy

“Zebulon charter school headmaster dismissed from post.” WRAL (NC), 3/30/2012

Zebulon, N.C. — The governing board of a Zebulon charter school on Thursday evening fired the school's headmaster amid claims by two female employees that he inappropriately touched them.

The board of directors for East Wake Academy met in a closed session for more than an hour before announcing its decision to dismiss Brandon Smith from the post that he held for a decade.

Smith, who had been on paid leave since March 14, has not been charged with any crime, but Zebulon Police Chief Timothy Hayworth said that the two women filed sexual battery complaints against Smith and that investigators are still getting information about other possible victims.

Smith and his attorney, James Hairston, have denied the allegations. They had no comment Thursday evening...

Last week, police seized computers from Smith's home and office, and Hayworth said investigators are going through thousands of emails on the machines.

According to the search warrants, both employees claim that Smith inappropriately touched them, and one of the them told authorities that he solicited her for sexual acts.

One woman told investigators that Smith sent her emails about the allegations and that her work email had been reset in an attempt to keep her from accessing the messages.

The allegations aren't the first for Smith. In the late 1990s, a female teacher at Githens Middle School in Durham, where he was principal at the time, claimed he made sexually suggestive comments, kissed her and grabbed her. Smith resigned from the Durham County school system in 2000...

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Triad Math and Science Academy

“Questions loom about group proposing Raleigh charter school.” Independent Weekly (NC), 1/25/2012,

An accomplished charter school in Greensboro is eyeing the former Exploris Middle School in Raleigh for a new campus that could open this fall. But parents have raised questions about the quality of some of its teachers, many of whom are from Turkey. Those Turkish ties have also led to speculation that Triad Math and Science Academy (TMSA) could be part of a larger network of schools affiliated with the Islamic Gülen movement, an allegation that school officials and supporters vehemently deny...

But parents and former employees have concerns they hope state decision makers and the school will address before the charter is approved. They include the school's use of international teachers and staff visiting on visas, some of whom lack the English skills to adequately teach their classes; and classroom management, particularly for some international faculty. And then there's what a former TMSA employee called the "elephant in the corner."

Several times since TMSA opened in 2008, parents and former employees have speculated that TMSA is linked to Fethullah Gülen, a controversial Islamic preacher whom religious scholars regard as promoting a moderate form of Islam...

Charter schools suspected of Gülen ties are cookie-cutter K–12 academies focused on math, science and engineering, founded by highly educated Turkish scientists and businessmen. Many of the founders have advanced degrees but often limited experience in education. In addition to being founded by Turkish nationals, the schools often spend thousands of dollars to sponsor H1B visas for international faculty and staff, mostly from Turkey.

TMSA fits the model. The board that founded the school in 2008 had five members, three from Turkey, according to their résumés. A fourth board member had a Turkish spouse, and was also the lone member of the board who had a background in education. The board now has seven members, the majority of them from Turkey, according to their résumés...

TMSA also has eight international teachers on visas, including five from Turkey. All together, TMSA has 10 Turkish or Turkish-American employees, of 57 total, including the principal and assistant principal. Since it opened, TMSA has sponsored 17 visas for teachers, at a cumulative cost of $25,500, Orak said. For the past two years, the school has had an annual operating budget of about $4 million, he said...

State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, toured TMSA last week, and questioned Orak about the availability of local teachers. Since 2008, more than 2,100 public school teachers have been laid off and the state has eliminated more than 6,100 teaching jobs, including 187 in Guilford County.

"I have a neighbor whose wife is going to China to teach physics," Harrison said after the tour. "It seemed odd to me that you wouldn't be able to hire a qualified teacher to teach math and science when we have qualified math and science teachers here going abroad because they can't find a job."

Many international teachers who have arrived at TMSA have such poor English skills that they can't do their jobs effectively, parents said...

But despite the concerns of some community members, TMSA's administration has never held a meeting with parents or teachers to openly address the concerns, Orak said...

Even if the allegations are untrue, the school—at the very least—is facing a major public relations problem. [Joel] Medley, the state director of charter schools, said he visited the school last week and asked again about the issue. "I just asked if they were going to respond to the allegations," Medley said. "It's out there." School officials need to be more proactive in addressing it, he said.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, please read “Triad Math and Science Academy: Evidence of affiliation with Gulen Movement” @

http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/triad-math-and-science-academy.html

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