Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences

“Sarasota karate teacher charged in sexual battery on student.” Herald-Tribune (FL), 3/9/2012

SARASOTA - Sheriff’s officers have arrested a karate instructor at the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences on a charge of sexual battery on a child after a female student said the teacher had sex with her in his classroom seven years ago.

John Garcia, 47, of the 2800 block of Poplar Street in Sarasota, was arrested and jailed without bond Friday on the felony charge, according to a sheriff’s release.

A former student of Garcia’s told detectives that she had sex with Garcia in his classroom at the school seven years ago, when she was 14, the release said...

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AUDIT RAISES QUESTIONS OVER CHARTER SCHOOL; SARASOTA SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES OVERSPENT BY $560,000 AND MUST COVER A $300,000 DEFICIT; February 13, 2001; Sarasota Herald Tribune

The Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences overspent by about $560,000 during the last fiscal year, and the mistakes could result in the closing of the 4-year-old school.

The school must cut 21 percent from its budget this year or find other ways to cover a $300,000 deficit, said Al Weidner, the Sarasota County School District's budgeting director. "It's going to be hard."

Not only is the charter school faced with the prospect of drastic cuts, but school leaders are also under scrutiny from Sarasota County School District officials, who have hired a consultant to examine the school's spending…

District leaders became alarmed about the charter school's finances recently when a consultant's audit, for which the district paid $2,000, listed pages of questionable spending policies…

Independent Auditor’s report of June 30, 2008

http://www.myflorida.com/audgen/pages/chschools_efile%20rpts/2008%20sarasota%20school%20of%20arts%20and%20sciences.pdf

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Gateway Charter School (Arkansas)

FIRST CHARTER SCHOOL FAILED, BUT OTHERS HAVE HIGH HOPES; September 17, 2001; Arkansas Business 

Gateway Charter School in Ponca knew it was in financial trouble the first day of school in September 2000.

The first open-enrollment charter school in Arkansas needed 40 students to break even, but it only had 13, said Steve Brewer, director of the Ozarks Unlimited Resource Cooperative in Harrison, which oversaw the school.

The school never recovered from its early student shortages and voluntarily surrendered its charter on Aug. 24, leaving in $400,000 in debt…

A recent special report by the Division of Legislative Audit showed Gateway spent $972,376 during its two years in existence, although students didn't start attending until fall 2000. During that period, its revenue was $570,792, leaving a $401,584 deficit…

Brewer said he decided to take the school off life support because it wasn't luring in enough students. And Gateway never recovered from a $180,000 debt it, incurred by renovating the facilities it got from Ponca Bible Camp, Brewer said.

Gateway was supposed take the fourth-,fifth-and sixth-grade students who had fallen behind academically and keep them 24-hours a day, seven days a week for six weeks at a time…

A strong marketing campaign could have helped the school, but it didn't have the money to advertise, Brewer said.

Although Gateway made "good strides" with the students' academic performance, it was too expensive to house them at the school for the six-week session, Greenway said…

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Martin Hughes Charter School

BUHL SCHOOL LOSES CHARTER, GOES PRIVATE; THE IRON RANGE OPERATION WAS MIRED IN A DISPUTE OVER WHO WAS IN CHARGE; December 4, 2001; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 

The Martin Hughes Charter School in Buhl, Minn., embattled for months over whether teachers or managers would call the shots, has lost its charter, and started classes Monday as a private school.

The new Iron Range School still will teach the same kids, those sent by the courts to the Mesabi Academy treatment facility, and offer an almost identical program, officials said. Mesabi Academy, a residential program for troubled youth, is owned by KidsPeace.

But its life as a charter school is over.

"We very much wanted to retain the charter model, which allowed us great financial efficiencies that could be passed on to educate our kids," said Dan Kasperkoski, executive director of Mesabi Academy, in a written statement. "Unfortunately, ongoing governance issues would not allow for the charter to continue."

The school had been granted two extensions to its charter to give it, its teachers and its sponsor, the Mountain Iron-Buhl School District, time to work out a governing pact…

The school now will come under the educational oversight of the Mountain Iron-Buhl district, said Superintendent James Techar. The state Department of Children, Families and Learning will keep an eye on its financial operations. The new private school will receive funding from students' home districts…

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Fort Snelling Academy

NEW CHARTER SCHOOL AT FORT SNELLING LOSING KIDS, CASH; May 15, 2001; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

A charter school at Fort Snelling will end the school year early because of financial trouble.

Classes at Fort Snelling Academy will end June 1 instead of June 7 so the school can begin to recoup a $300,000 budget deficit, school officials said Monday. A loss of students and the funding tied to them led to the shortfall.

Fort Snelling Academy opened last fall as a college-prep high school, wooing average students who may not have had college plans but who had the potential for higher education. It opened in September with 264 students and 11 more on a waiting list.

The school has lost about 100 students since opening day. Peter Kordell, chairman of the school's board, said half of those students left because they could not or would not keep up with the rigorous curriculum, and the other half left because the school had a chaotic environment when it first opened.

Fort Snelling Academy received its charter in February 2000 and opened in September without a permanent site or the temporary building at 5000 Bloomington Rd. that it is now using.

For the first month, students were shuffled from one location to another. At one point, they even ate lunch under a large tent…

The school was soon closed.

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Jefferson Academy

JEFFERSON CHARTER SCHOOL MUST MEET CONDITIONS TO STAY OPEN; March 30, 2001; Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

A Jefferson County charter school must clean up its books, replace most of its governing board and notify parents of students' rights if it wants to remain open.

Those are among the conditions imposed on Jefferson Academy, a K-12 charter school in Broomfield serving 650 students, by the Jefferson County school board late Wednesday after a nearly five-hour hearing…

… Arrington and Mund, who served on the board during the past two years, are among four of seven Academy board members who would have to be replaced under the conditions imposed.

Reactions of Academy parents and staff to the school board's decision varied widely, Reynolds said. Some want to accept the conditions while others want ``to fight it to the death,'' he said.

The Academy could appeal the Jeffco board's decision to the state Board of Education.

Jeffco's board took its action after district officials and an independent auditor found evidence of sloppy accounting practices, conflict of interests by board members, improper disciplining of students and the espousing of Christian views by the school.

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