Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow

STATE QUESTIONS ATTENDANCE RATES AT INTERNET CHARTER SCHOOLS; Sept. 23, 2006; Associated Press, via Akron Beacon Journal (OH) 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Attendance has been so good at some of Ohio's Internet charter schools that the state is wondering if the numbers are too good to be true.

The Ohio Department of Education plans to give attendance figures a second look after 20 of the schools - state-funded public schools where students do work online from home or other sites - reported perfect attendance for the last school year. Others had rates that were nearly perfect.

At least two schools, including Ohio's biggest, admit that they don't count students expelled for being absent for at least 21 days.

"This sounds like just another way that charter schools are gaming the system," said Lisa Zellner, spokeswoman for the Ohio Federation of Teachers. "What does this do for the student? The point is to be educating these kids, giving them what they need."…

The state's largest Internet charter school, the 6,664-student Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, has reported perfect attendance for the past three school years…

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ONLINE SCHOOLS UNDER SCRUTINY; May 3, 2002; Wired 

More than 30 publicly funded virtual charter schools have launched during the past five years, and parents have largely been pleased with the results.

But the alleged mismanagement of two academies run by for-profit companies is prompting states to request more regulatory authority.

Educators say the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) in Ohio and Einstein Academy in Pennsylvania, both of which are run by private companies, have ignored numerous academic guidelines while operating with questionable accounting practices…

[Ohio Federation of Teachers] president Tom Mooney said ECOT is "really being run by Bozo and Clarabell," claiming that management company Altair Learning Management had no background in education or technology. However, Mooney said they were "shrewd enough to smell a really good opportunity."…

The audit, which was released in April, showed that the company overcharged the state by $1.65 million for teaching hours it could not substantiate, and that $500,000 worth of computer equipment given to students who left the program were not recovered.

The auditor's office said ECOT's net loss of $3.8 million during the school year "causes substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

ECOT recently agreed to pay back $1.6 million to Ohio's department of education over the next three years. ECOT superintendent Jeffrey P. Forster, who saw 30 percent of his students leave the program during its first year, said that because of cost cutting, the academy is on solid financial footing…

The federation also cites a recent charter granted directly to Akron "industrialist" David Brennan's White Hat Management company instead of to a nonprofit as required by state law.

Mooney said that when legislators passed the charter school law, they never envisioned cyber schools and "did not set up appropriate guidelines for oversight."…

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Alexander Hamilton Charter School

EX-DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL FACES THEFT COUNTS; April 26, 2002; The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

The former director of Paterson's Alexander Hamilton Charter School was indicted Thursday on theft charges for allegedly cashing one of the school's checks several weeks after she had quit her post.

Carol Ann Gauthier, 46, left her job on June 27, but on July 18, she cashed a school check made out to her for $600, said William Gradisher, Passaic County chief assistant prosecutor.

A count of attempted theft was also filed because on the same day, Gauthier tried to cash a check for $4,500 at another bank, but officials there flagged the check and school officials were able to stop it, Gradisher said.

Gauthier could not be reached for comment Thursday, but previously she said the school owed her $27,000 in expenses and salary.

Gauthier left her job in a storm of controversy, with Alexander Hamilton board members accusing her of the thefts and of trying to sabotage the school. In August, the board members took Gauthier to court, saying she double-crossed the school during negotiations for a building lease.

School officials said they thought Gauthier was securing the lease for the Alexander Hamilton school, when in fact, she signed the lease for her own charter school, which they said she created on the sly.

Gauthier's charter school, called the Silver Fox Learning Center, never got off the ground, according to state records. The Alexander Hamilton charter school, plagued by fiscal problems, was turned over to the public schools in October to prevent the 250-student, K-5 school from being shut down.

The counts of theft by deception and attempted theft by deception each carry a maximum five-year prison term upon conviction. Court records show that several judgments were filed against Gauthier in the wake of a failed Newark restaurant project, and that she filed for personal bankruptcy.

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Charter School of Science and Technology

STATE'S LARGEST CHARTER SCHOOL FACES A CRITICAL YEAR; August 23, 2002; NY Times 

The academic year is off to a rocky start at the Charter School for Science and Technology, the state's largest charter school. Earlier this month it announced that it was dropping its 9th- and 10th-grade programs for this year, forcing 122 students to scurry to find other schools. The beginning of classes has been delayed by nine school days, to Sept. 4, to give teachers and administrators more time. The science tables have not been installed for laboratory work. The job of principal remains unfilled.

The school and its management company, Edison Schools Inc., are trying to rebound from a year of disappointing test scores, classroom behavior problems and turnover of students and teachers. The school and Edison hope that by delaying the high school programs and sharpening curriculum, they can improve academic performance in kindergarten through eighth grade...

A strong showing in Rochester is increasingly important to Edison, whose stock price has plummeted in recent months after a series of setbacks. Last week, officials in Georgia voted to end Edison contracts for two elementary schools in Macon. The Dallas school superintendent has said he wants to cancel his district's contract with Edison. In Philadelphia, the company received a contract to run only 20 city schools rather than the 45 it had hoped for.

The Philadelphia experience has led Edison to redouble its efforts to run large charter schools like Rochester's, said John Chubb, Edison's chief education officer, who met with board members and teachers today to outline plans to improve achievement. ''We're more than happy to do large clusters in urban areas,'' he said, ''but the politics of that is very challenging.''

Signaling Rochester's importance, H. Christopher Whittle, Edison's founder and chief executive, visited last week. Performance is critical this year, its third, since Edison makes the review of its five-year charter depend chiefly on a school's performance in its third year.

''By your fourth year, you have to look like you've created a school that deserves to stay open,'' Mr. Chubb said. ''You want to create a model school, not just a school that can hold onto its charter.''…

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