Bradenton Charter School

“Manatee charter school scheduled to close.” News 13 (FL), 4/21/2013

MANATEE COUNTY -- About 100 Manatee County students will need to find a new school for next year.

After 13 years, the Bradenton Charter School is closing.

Karen Carpenter Chair of the Manatee County School board said the school is closing because the school failed to meet standards particularly in the area of curriculum and governance.

But parents like Dana Russell say the school is a safe place for children to learn. Half of the kids have learning disabilities and many others have been bullied.

“If they go to public schools they are going to be lost. But here they get one on one. I believe they need this school,” said Russell.

The Manatee School Board is planning to discuss the future of the charter school during Monday’s school board meeting.

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“Parents oppose closing of Bradenton Charter School.”Herald-Tribune, 4/21/2013

... Problems listed in the report include an unstable governing board, no detailed curriculum, no assessment monitoring plan, no ESE or ESOL certified staff, no food sanitation policies and lack of documentation on staff members. Bradley explained that some areas of concern are the same from the school's last review five years ago...

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Massachusetts charter schools (overstated demand)

“Charter school demand in Mass. Disputed.” Boston Globe (MA), 4/8/2013

A state tally showing more than 53,000 students on charter school waiting lists is overstating demand, according to a Globe review of state data.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in tallying the waiting lists statewide and for many individual communities, including Boston, frequently counts the same students more than once.

That’s because the state simply adds up the waiting lists from each charter school without collecting individual names to learn whether a student appears on more than one list or, in fact, may be enrolled at another charter school.

Charter school leaders have been seizing on the large number of students on the waiting lists as evidence of soaring popularity for the schools and the need for more of them.

But critics note that as lawmakers debate legislation this spring to raise a state-imposed cap on the number of charter school seats in Boston and other cities, they will do so without a full picture of demand...

The Globe review found that waiting list policies can vary tremendously among the state’s 81 charter schools, which at minimum under state law must place all unsuccessful applicants in a lottery for admission on a list.

While some schools purge their lists annually and ask those students to reapply, others keep students on lists for many years without knowing whether they are still interested, or add names when parents merely request information about the school.

In Boston, where students on combined waiting lists have nearly tripled to more than 27,000 over the past three years, the rate of duplication could be high, said guidance counselors and advocates who monitor school registrations.

“If a family is applying to charter schools, they are applying to all of them,” said Susan Trotz, a guidance counselor at the city-run Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, whose 200 eighth-graders each year often apply to 20 traditional, charter, or private high schools...

“It is disappointing and upsetting not having a measure [implemented that] we all agreed to,” said Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, which pushed for a more accurate waiting-list count. “It continues the tension between charter and traditional schools.”...

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Magnolia Science Academy charter schools

“Audit Report – Magnolia Science Academy-Charter Schools.” Los Angeles Unified School District, Office of the Inspector General, 8/20/2012

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report contains the results of our audit of Magnolia Science Academy –Charter Schools (“MSA Schools”). The MSA Schools referred to in this audit were the Magnolia Science Academy-1, Magnolia Science Academy-2 and Magnolia Science Academy-3. The MSA Schools are part of twelve Magnolia Public Schools (MPS) operated by the Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation (MERF)...

Our audit found that the MSA Schools were not in full compliance with the selected provisions, standards and procedures outlined in their respective Charter Agreements. We also noted that the MSA Schools needed to strengthen their internal control systems and their oversight of fiscal and financial operations.
Some of the significant conditions we noted during the audit included:

• The governing board needed to review its existing governance structure to allow for the increased participation of parents, community members and other parties in the Charter Schools’ policy decision areas and other school advocacy.
• The MSA Schools did not maintain all employment documentation in the employee files as prescribed by the California Education Code and the Charter Agreement.
• The MSA Schools did not maintain all the enrollment documentation required by the written enrollment procedures and by the provisions of the Charter Agreement.
• Review of the financial statements and accounting records noted: non-disclosure of related party transactions; failure to maintain required fund reserves; failure to appropriately apply accrual basis of accounting; lack of monitoring of cash receipts and deposits process; lack of documentation for disbursements; lack of control over journal entries, and lack of adequate training for the accounting staff.
• The processes and controls over the bank reconciliation were inadequate. We found one Charter School that dated all reconciliations three days prior to this audit. We also noted that some deposits in transit remained outstanding in bank reconciliations from five months to almost a year.

Conclusion: Our audit noted control weaknesses in governance structure, employment documentation and qualifications of staff, admission/enrollment requirements and various financial control issues managed by the Magnolia Public Schools Central Office at the MSA School sites visited...

Potential Impact

The conditions described above, along with their underlying causes, may have increased the risk of fraud, waste and abuse of the MSA Charter Schools’ funds that could potentially result from the inability to detect irregularities, improper use of public funds or misappropriation of assets. Also, the questioned costs and questionable accounting practices identified in the course of the audit may have resulted in misstated and inaccurate financial statements of the MSA Charter Schools...

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NOTE: Although this internal audit report of these three Gulen charter schools was released in August 2012, the serious findings have not been presented to the public by the media, nor publicly discussed by the LAUSD school board as of 12/1/2012. It is also not known who ordered the audit, or why. If you live in LA, I urge you to pressure your local media to cover the story. More on the Magnolia chain HERE.

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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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New Millennium Institute of Education

“Troubled New Millennium charter school keeps getting second chances.” Fresno Bee (CA), 9/16/2012

In February 2011, after a decade of dismal performance, the New Millennium charter school in west Fresno turned to Dr. Ernie Smith for help...

As he dug in, Smith said he was unprepared for the sheer level of dysfunction he encountered at New Millennium -- and the hands-off attitude of Fresno Unified...

Students were coming and going in an independent study program that lacked even the pretense of accounting, Smith said. The program was so poorly run that the publicly funded school was having to pay back nearly $1 million in ADA (Average Daily Attendance) money to the state because of administrative lapses.

There was no central record keeping, Smith said. Instead, student transcripts and other files were tossed into boxes. The school had gone through seven principals and superintendents over a nine-year span. The oversight was so lax that counselors were receiving paychecks and not coming to work.

Among the no-shows was Cal Johnson, a trustee on the Fresno Unified School Board who is paid $3,600 a month to act as a "crisis counselor" at New Millennium.

Johnson skipped work for weeks at a time even as he was attending school board meetings...

"It was more than a mess," Smith said. "The entire staff seemed to be friends or relatives of each other. It was a nest of nepotism...

"The school -- and there is no easy way to say this -- is not providing an adequate education for the kids who go there," Smith said. "Instead, it's become a cash cow for a handful of people. And Fresno Unified is sitting on its duff and not doing anything about it."...

More than two dozen interviews with former teachers, administrators and community leaders, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of official documents, detail a decade-long pattern of a charter school repeatedly violating state education codes and a school district unwilling to hold it accountable. Each violation by the school, each broken promise to clean up its act ended with Fresno Unified giving New Millennium another chance...

"There aren't any benchmarks at New Millennium," said Sanchez, who worked at the school for nearly a decade, rising up the ranks to lead teacher. "The teachers are winging it. They have no way to assess students.

"Fresno Unified has let the school off the hook. It hasn't done its oversight."

In an interview last week, Brown says the school is doing its job, and that Smith, Sanchez and Biedermann simply are nursing a grudge.

"There is nobody bringing up issues except these three disgruntled former employees," he said. "All of their statements are not factual."...

But Smith and other critics say the charter school, whose enrollment has fluctuated from 200 to 500 students, should have been shut down years ago.

In a confidential report to the Fresno Unified School Board in July 2009, the district's charter review team found that the school was failing to provide students with an adequate education. The report noted that the school was continuing to violate numerous terms of its operating agreement with Fresno Unified -- clear grounds for revocation under state education law...

(h/t to the Fresno State journalism students who wrote this piece)

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School of Success Academy Charter Middle School

“Duval charter school struggling to survive; The School of Success struggles with poor scores and financial issues.” The Florida Times-Union, 3/19/2012

One of Jacksonville’s oldest charter schools faces potential closure because of chronic problems including failure to meet state and federal student academic proficiency standards.

School of Success Academy Charter Middle School is also about $40,759 in the red this year – continuing an annual deficit trend that began in the 2007-08 term. And its five-year lease with the city for the school’s property ended nine months ago. It is now renting it on a month-to-month basis...

The academy has received a school grade of “D” each school year since 2008-09. Its charter contract requires at least a “C” grade or better.

Duval County schools Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals has recommended to the School Board that the district not renew the academy’s charter contract. In his recommendation, Pratt-Dannals details a series of deficiencies consistently found by district officials during regular site visits over the past five years, with the most recent visit in February...

Saying the school provides a quality education, [Genell M. Mills, academy principal and director] noted it already corrected many of the issues — including nepotism, sloppy bookkeeping and accounting practices, and fingerprinting and criminal background checks on employees — that district officials cited as deficiencies...

Approved in May 1997, the academy at 6974 Wilson Blvd. was one of the original three charter schools that opened in Duval County. It has an enrollment cap of 500 students, but has enrolled fewer than 300 annually over the past four years. The academy’s contract expires June 30, and it wants a 10-year renewal...

When the district receives the academy’s appeal notice, the School Board will decide whether to hear the matter itself or refer it to the state Division of Administrative Hearings. Either way, the district will have 60 days to act on the academy’s request for a hearing, said Karen Chastain, the school district’s lawyer.

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Harmony charter school network (TX)

“Harmony schools causing discord.” San Antonio Express-News (TX), 1/4/2012 

The 36 schools that make up the Harmony charter school network are among the highest-rated in Texas.

But despite its glowing academic record, Harmony has received a flurry of criticism for its business practices.

In particular, the charter network's reliance on visas for Turkish-born staff and use of Turkish-owned businesses for construction and other contracts has raised questions about how it spends taxpayer money and whether it is too insular...

Some Harmony critics point to a burgeoning number of Turkish-American-led charter networks in the United States, more than 120 in 25 states, that they say are tied to Islamic political leader Fethullah Gulen...

From 2008 to 2010, the Labor Department certified 1,197 H-1B visa requests from the Cosmos Foundation — more than double the number of visas certified nationwide for Texas-based computer company Dell USA and about 70 percent as many as were certified for tech giant Apple Inc...

Harmony has about 290 employees working on H-1B visas, or 16 percent of its workforce, according to Superintendent Soner Tarim. Most are Turkish, said Tarim, who is also from Turkey...

“Staffing Northside schools has never really been a problem,” said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for Bexar County's largest school district with 97,000 students, where Labor Department records show no H-1B visa certifications in recent years. “In the past there have been thousands of people applying for hundreds of jobs.”...

At Harmony, Tarim said the charter network finds a shortage of qualified teachers in math, science and English as a second language sometimes prompts them to hire foreign workers...

Nearly a third of the H-1B certifications received by Cosmos actually were for jobs outside those fields, however.

Labor Department data includes visa certifications for legal counsel, accountants, assistant principals, public relations coordinators and teachers of art, English and history...

Some students say they have trouble understanding foreign-born teachers...

Tarim bristled at the implication that the charter network was giving much of its work to a closed circle of Turkish-owned businesses...

But in recent years, eight of the charter network's 10 largest contracts have gone to just two companies, both of which have close ties to Cosmos: the Houston-based contracting firms Solidarity Contracting and TDM Contracting.

Solidarity is run by a former Harmony school business manager, according to a report by the New York Times. TDM was formed a couple of years ago by a former Solidarity employee...

Together, the two young companies have received more than $66 million in Cosmos contracts since 2009, records show. The total doesn't include cost overruns or smaller jobs they might have been awarded...

In response to an open records request, Cosmos provided no criteria used to rank the five firms or information about how such criteria was weighted, saying simply that the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder...

Some of Harmony's harshest critics point to somewhat opaque connections between the charter operator and Gulen, a charismatic religious leader from Turkey who espouses religious tolerance and a moderate brand of Islam from his self-imposed Pennsylvania exile.

Tarim laughed a little when asked about the relationship between Harmony and Gulen, which he said is nonexistent...

The Cosmos Foundation also provides management services to other charter networks.

Tarim said Cosmos consults with the School of Science and Technology, a small San Antonio-based charter network run by a nonprofit called the Riverwalk Education Foundation...

Though Cosmos and Riverwalk have separate boards, others referenced a closer tie between the two organizations, referring to their campuses as “sister” schools...

... the TEA has spent the past several months conducting an audit of roughly $540,000 in “inadequately documented” federal grant funds received by the Cosmos Foundation, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.

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More information:

• “Harmony Public Schools, AKA Harmony Science Academy schools / Cosmos Foundation"
• "The New York Times vs Harmony Public Schools"
• "Gulen charter schools in Texas"

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Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School

"Bethlehem school board accepts Vitalistic's voluntary charter surrender.” The Express Times (PA), 12/10/2012

The Bethlehem Area School Board tonight accepted the voluntary surrender of the charter of a city-based charter school that the board spent months trying to shut down.

Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley spent months fighting charter revocation proceedings initiated by the Bethlehem Area and Allentown school districts. 

But then in October the charter school announced  "with profound sorrow" that it plans to shut its doors Jan. 25, which marks the end of the first marking period for the sending districts. A revocation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29 was canceled in light of the voluntary surrender of the charter...

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“Bills pile up as Vitalistic charter school's future looks murky; Bethlehem charter school hasn't offered mandatory speech therapy since February, owes creditors $87,531.” The Morning Call (PA), 3/31/2012

Already under two investigations, Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley is facing mounting financial pressure that has led trustees to raise the specter of closing the school, which serves mostly poor children with learning, emotional and physical disabilities.

Records obtained by The Morning Call show money issues led the Bethlehem school to stop offering legally mandated speech therapy while nearly $9,500 in food vendor bills have gone unpaid and part of a federal education grant was used to pay a utility bill.

More pressing, the school can no longer afford to pay more than $17,000 in monthly rent and maintenance costs at its building on Fourth Avenue in Bethlehem and is looking for cheaper quarters in Allentown, records and interviews show. The Bethlehem building is for sale.

In a March 24 email on moving, board President Joyce Thompson wrote that she and another trustee "were talking about the possibility of having to close the school."...

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“Vitalistic charter school chief resigns,alleging continued financial mismanagement; She alleges continuing financial mismanagement at Vitalistic in Bethlehem.” The Morning Call (PA), 3/28/2012

The top administrator of a troubled Bethlehem charter school resigned Wednesday, alleging that school officials continue to mismanage tax dollars even as two local school districts investigate its finances and loss of a state license to provide students with mental health care.

In her resignation letter, Nancy Egan, chief executive officer of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley since 2010, said the board of trustees and other administrators have undermined her attempts to correct years of fiscal mismanagement...

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“State offers to help investigate Vitalistic charter school; Pennsylvania Department of Education offers Allentown and Bethlehem school officials help examining charter's financial and special education records.” The Morning Call (PA), 12/31/2011 

State officials have offered to help the Allentown and Bethlehem Area school districts with their joint investigation of Vitalistic Therapeutic Charter School of the Lehigh Valley.

Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said Friday his staff "received a very supportive call" from the Pennsylvania Department of Education concerning Vitalistic. He said the state has offered to help the districts analyze the charter's financial and special education records...

The districts' investigation stems from a story in The Morning Call on Nov. 27 that examined Vitalistic's finances and its loss of a state license that served as the cornerstone of its chartered mission to provide poor students with intensive mental health therapy.

Using public records and interviews with state and Vitalistic sources, the newspaper found Vitalistic had improperly lent taxpayer money to its nonprofit sister school, had problems documenting students' special education services, and had repeat violations of its licensed mental health program. Vitalistic billed the state for more than $200,000 in services from the preschool and charter school that auditors could not determine if children and their families had received...

The newspaper's investigation found Vitalistic's board of trustees offered little to no oversight of those funds or management decisions. The story showed Vitalistic had problems administering and documenting whether students received services under a welfare department license to provide outpatient partial hospitalization care, according to audits conducted by Magellan Behavioral Health Inc., a Connecticut-based private managed care company that monitors treatment for people on Medicaid with mental health issues...

The state auditor general's office is also investigating Vitalistic.

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The original story here: “WATCHDOG REPORT: A charter school's troubles emerge; Vitalistic Therapeutic billed state for 'services not rendered' records offer no proof of services to students.” The Morning Call (PA), 11/26/2011  

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LEAP Academy University Charter School

“LEAP Academy paid $151,428 penalty to previous food-service vendor.” Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 3/12/2013

When Camden's LEAP Academy University Charter School compelled its new food-service management company to retain the school's executive chef and give him a $24,000 raise, LEAP also had to pay a $151,428 penalty to its previous vendor, documents show.

Including Michele Pastorello's new $95,000 salary, LEAP has spent nearly $250,000 this school year to keep him employed as executive chef. The position typically pays about $40,000, according to industry experts.

Pastorello is the live-in boyfriend of LEAP founder and board chairwoman Gloria Bonilla-Santiago. His raise, as well as the fee paid to the previous management company, Aramark, now are under review by the school's board of trustees...

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“Camden LEAP Academy board investigating chef's $24,000 raise.” Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 2/24//2013

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“Lawsuit is another blow to Camden's LEAP Academy.”Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), 2/2/2013

In addition to LEAP Academy University Charter School’s financial woes, the school has been hit was a lawsuit alleging misappropriation of school and scholarship money.

The lawsuit filed in January by LEAP employee Mark Paoli, who served as the school facilities manager for 12 years before being demoted in May, alleges LEAP founder and board chair Gloria Bonilla-Santiago “routinely demanded that he perform work on her home while on LEAP Academy time and using LEAP Academy, tools, equipment and supplies...”

Bonilla-Santiago denied all allegations in a statement...

Founded in 1997, LEAP is one of Camden's more prominent charter schools, with a large downtown campus. In August, LEAP will open a new 60-student high school that will focus on science, technology, engineering, and math, and a new K-3 school. LEAP Lower School (K-6) and LEAP Upper School (7-12) are one block apart on Cooper Street.

But the school has recently faced scrutiny from the state for mismanagement of federal money. And just last month, it was publicly reported that LEAP  (as well as Camden Pride Charter School) had lost its tax-exempt status from the IRS in 2010 for failure to file tax forms for three consecutive years...

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“LEAP Academy ends basketball episode.” The Star-Ledger (NJ), 6/14/2007 

LEAP Academy University Charter School has given up a costly battle over enrollment practices that netted out-of-state basketball players and ran afoul of state law. And the coach at the heart of the recruitment scandal will not return in September, according to a report in the Courier Post.

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy had found LEAP violated laws that govern charter programs by giving admissions preference to out-of-state athletes over Camden students.

The charter school's trustees decided in May not to appeal Davy's ruling to the state Appellate Division. The Rutgers-based program spent nearly $55,000 on the legal fight.

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COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION NEW JERSEY STATE DECISION, April 3, 2007

http://www.state.nj.us/education/legal/commissioner/2007/apr/120-07.pdf

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Theresa B. Lee Academy

STATE THREATENS TO HALT FUNDING FOR FORT WORTH'S THERESA B. LEE ACADEMYCHARTER SCHOOL; August 15, 2009; wfaa.com via Dallas Morning News (TX)

AUSTIN - State education officials have threatened to cut off funding for a troubled Fort Worth charter school unless its owner submits a detailed financial audit within 30 days.

The letter warning of the possible loss of state funding is the latest problem for Theresa B. Lee Academy of Fort Worth, a charter school already under state oversight because of poor performance ratings and cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

The latest warning also applies to a sister campus in Houston, Jesse Jackson Academy. Funding will be suspended if the independent audit for both schools is not delivered to the Texas Education Agency this month by the owner and superintendent of the two schools, Jesse W. Jackson of Houston…

"We have to be able to ensure that state funds are being spent appropriately, and we have given them a very reasonable amount of time to produce this audit," said Debbie Ratcliffe of the TEA. She said the audit was originally due on Jan. 28 and that three notices have been sent.

Lee Academy, located in a gray storefront building in East Fort Worth, has had a state conservator overseeing its operations since the fall of 2007 after the school was cited for cheating on the TAKS and hit with an "academically unacceptable" rating from the state…

A financial report earlier this year found that the charter school owes the state more than $500,000 for overstating its student enrollment last year and for collecting state money for special education services that students never received…

Some teachers at the school were not paid at the end of the last school year in June and were told to file for unemployment benefits, she said. Even a check the school sent to Dr. Francois as payment for her services bounced.

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THERESA B. LEE ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL ORDERED CLOSED; November 12, 2008; Fort Worth Star Telegram (TX) 

FORT WORTH — State officials ordered Theresa B. Lee Academy charter school to close by tomorrow, state officials said. The charter school, located on East Lancaster Avenue, failed to submit required financial audits and been monitored by the state for cheating on state tests in 2005.

Earlier this month, the school lost state funding for failure to submit financial audits, which public schools are required to do annually.

Officials said representatives from the Region XI Education Service Center, which serves and helps monitor Tarrant County area schools, arrived at the school Nov. 7 to find that the school was not in session.

“That was unacceptable to the commissioner,” TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.

Jesse Jackson, who also oversees Lee’s parent company Youth for Education and Success, based in Houston, could not be reached for comment. He has not returned media calls in recent months. Lee academy was receiving funding for about 112 students.

The state asked YES officials to submit a 2005-06 by Sept. 29 and failed to do so. The state has revoked or removed 41 charters since allowing such schools in 1995.

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FORT WORTH CHARTER SCHOOL IN DISARRAY, BUT STATE KEEPS IT OPEN; June 14, 2008; Dallas Morning News (TX) 

An inexperienced science teacher with no textbooks or lab equipment. Special education students who get no special attention. Bills paid late or not at all.

Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school discovered cheating on 2005 TAKS tests, is failing in virtually every regard, according to state records.

Yet it remains open…

"This school is woefully inadequate to provide even a marginal education," the conservator, Carol Francois, concluded in one report. "The staff, for the most part, is poorly qualified, poorly trained, and poorly managed."

Jesse W. Jackson, the school's superintendent and owner, did not respond to requests for comment this week.

What does it take to shut down a school like this? Some critics say TEA needs tougher state laws to make it easier to sever the contract between a failing charter school and the state.

Some state efforts to shut down charters languish in court for years.

"I think it's very obvious that the bad charters need to be closed down and the good charters need to be emulated, and it's not as easy as it sounds," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano…

The audit, released last month, found that Lee didn't keep required attendance records for most of the 2006-07 school year and collected state money for special education services that students never received. The state says Lee must repay $516,388…

…monthly reports to TEA describe a school where teachers drilled students in how to take tests, but spent little time teaching the subject matter.

One report mentions three learning-disabled students who said they didn't receive extra academic help the law allows for them. They didn't even know they're supposed to get it.

Another report documents an untrained but eager science teacher begging for biology textbooks and lab equipment only to have her bosses tell her to find and use whatever her predecessor left behind.

Teachers haven't been paid for May, Dr. Francois said. Special education consultants said their invoices were paid late, if at all. A $3,446 check to Dr. Francois bounced…

In 2006, Dr. Jackson received $144,000 as superintendent of Lee and Jackson academies. Arthurlene Jackson, his wife and assistant superintendent, received $125,000, according to IRS records…

PROBLEMS:

•A state investigation found that educators helped students cheat on 2005 TAKS tests.

•An audit of the 2006-07 school year found that Lee failed to keep required attendance records and collected state money for special education and other services students never received. Lee must repay the state $516,388.

•In 2006-07, Lee reported an average attendance of 252 students. In 2007-08, with a state conservator in charge, attendance dropped to 115 students. Because schools receive state dollars based largely on attendance, Lee's annual state funding dropped from about $1.6 million to about $750,000.

•Students taking different electives, from social studies to physical education, were put in the same class with the same teacher.

•Classroom activities often consisted mostly of rote drills, reading aloud and filling out worksheets.

•A special education teacher did not always show up when she was supposed to.

•Only four students in the entire school passed the math TAKS and only three passed the science TAKS, based on preliminary 2008 scores.

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FW CHARTER SCHOOL GETS CHEATING PENALTY / State officials will overseeTAKS testing on three campuses; September 12, 2007; Dallas Morning News (TX) 

State officials announced punishments for three schools Tuesday, including a Fort Worth charter school that cheated on TAKS tests and may have inflated attendance figures.

At Theresa B. Lee Academy in Fort Worth, the Texas Education Agency will assign an official to oversee student testing and to help with a state audit of the school's attendance records, among other duties. Those steps allow the school to stay open this year…

 [Robert Scott, the TEA's acting commissioner] said the punishment Theresa B. Lee received is about as severe as possible. The state reported in June that investigators had found that school officials doctored student answer sheets, gave students answers and claimed to have lost key records in a "flood" that never happened.

Investigators had wanted to interview students who were listed on the attendance rolls but, according to Lee officials, were absent or had withdrawn from school.

Those aren't Lee's only troubles. The school has also received the state's lowest academic rating of "unacceptable" the last two years. If that pattern continues, Mr. Scott said, he'll consider closing the school next year…

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Lake Havasu Charter School

LAKE HAVASU CHARTER SCHOOL TO CLOSE / Officials failed to meet state deadline for renewal papers; April 27, 2011; News-Herald (CO) 

Lake Havasu Charter School is closing after 16 years because officials failed to submit paperwork by the deadline to continue operation.

Principal Patricia Hauchrog said the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools e-mailed the charter-renewal notification in February 2010, but the administration never received the notice.

“We did not get the e-mail,” Hauchrog said. “Nor did they pick up the phone and say, ‘Why didn’t you respond to the e-mail?’ I figured the state would contact us. (The e-mail’s) not there.”

School officials then received a certified letter in July 2010, stating they missed the May 2010 renewal deadline and their charter would expire this August.

“It’s disheartening,” Hauchrog said. “Kids are all over the board (emotionally).”…

Hauchrog wrote a letter dated Oct. 28, 2010, to the state board, explaining a part-time employee had monitored incoming e-mails. Once the employee retired, the e-mails were supposed to be forwarded to an administrative assistant’s e-mail account.

“Human error and the need to be financially conservative is the cause for this dilemma,” the letter states.

Hauchrog said she knew the deadline was approaching, but was waiting to receive the state notification.

She said the first meeting they could be placed on the state agenda was in January. At the meeting, board members did not vote to let the school still submit its application.

Richard Tatham, who is the charter school’s representative on file for the state, said he didn’t think there would be “too much of a problem” convincing the state board to allow the submission past deadline. Tatham also pastors the Stonebridge Christian Fellowship Church, which is located on the same property as the school off Jamaica Boulevard.

“We feel God is involved in the overall,” Tatham said. “And that some good things can happen.”…

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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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