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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Escondido Charter High School

“GOP, Tea Party Influence Permeates Local Charter School.” K-12 News Network, 9/19/2011

...Blatant electioneering by the GOP on school grounds. Click through to see photos [see below] of a political rally held for Republican candidates in May, 2010, pay special attendance to what the school’s white tiger mascot is wearing. Mitt Romney, Meg Whitman, Darrell Issa and Pete Wilson are all in attendance. While my understanding is that it’s legal to use the facility for a political rally, it’s questionable in the least, to dress the school’s mascot in anti-Democratic Party garb and surround it by cheerleaders in school uniforms.
Adults in the photo appear to be leading the students in cheers for Republicans and against Democrats. I’ve been unable to find any evidence of attempts by the school to balance GOP influence with alternative political points of view.

The San Diego Tea Party held a “Constitution Seminar” for grades five and up on school grounds. In the online Meetup forum the San Diego County Tea Party organizer, Maggie Acerra,  writes  ”I guess something like this would never be put on at a PUBLIC High School anymore, would it?” I wonder if she understands that most charter schools are public schools.

The school has numerous ties to area Republican organizations. This is just one example. I found no links to any Democratic organization.

Parents have alleged that students’ constitutional rights were violated by promoting prayer in school.

The school’s celebration of their new “American Spirit” sculptures included several well-known area conservatives.  Roger Hedgecock, an ultra-conservative radio host broadcasted from the school’s celebration and the radio program was co-hosted by the school’s executive director. In attendance were Republican city council members.

The school’s motto is “Education is our Business.” Absolutely nothing really “wrong” or unethical about this, but it points to the fact that the school falls in line with the GOP line of thinking that everything should be run “like a business.” Children and their education are viewed as commodities, products.

The Executive Director of Escondido Charter High School serves on the Republican Mayor’s economic advisory council.  This alone should have disqualified the school from entering into a new lease in a city-owned building.

The Mayor donated $500 to the charter school as a city council member, prior to being elected mayor. This donation was part of an increase in sales at a gas station he owns following a rally in support of a controversial ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to persons unable to provide proof of legal immigration status.  The ordinance was later pulled because the ACLU filed a lawsuit and the city determined it would be too costly to defend. It’s curious that one of the biggest champions of this ordinance (which was cheered by the Minutemen upon its initial passage) chose to donate profits gained because of his support to this particular charter school and not to one of the many public schools in the community he represents...

 

Click on image to enlarge.

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Academic Leadership Charter School

“Bronx Charter School Disciplined Over Admissions Methods.” New York Times, 7/20/11

A South Bronx charter school has been put on probation for what city education officials called “serious violations” of state law mandating random admissions, including possibly testing or interviewing applicants before their enrollment.

The school, Academic Leadership Charter School, opened in 2009 and is the first New York City charter to be disciplined for violating the rules for random admissions.

The violations go to the crux of the debate over charters, which are publicly financed but independently operated. Random admissions is a key tenet in most states, but critics have long contended that the schools surreptitiously weed out students who are unlikely to do well on standardized tests or are more difficult to educate.

In a letter sent to Academic Leadership’s board on Tuesday, the executive director of the city’s charter school office, Recy Dunn, accused the school of twice violating state admissions laws, and described a school in chaos from “a pattern of failed operational oversight by school leadership.”

Besides the admissions problems, the city found that two former staff members may have stolen from the school. The Department of Labor is also investigating Academic Leadership’s hiring practices, and the school is being audited by the city for unpaid food bills.

At most city charter schools, students are selected at public meetings where applicants’ names are picked from a box. But city officials found that at Academic Leadership, which has about 200 children in kindergarten through second grade, hundreds of applicants were left out of this year’s drawing. The lottery was supervised not by an impartial observer, but by a member of the parent association, the letter said. And while students who applied after the lottery should have been added to the waiting list, scores of them were not, it said...

...Interviews with five former employees and seven parents who applied to the school, along with documents they provided, point to a system of inappropriately testing students or reviewing their previous school files, with those who did not meet the standards of the principal, Norma Figueroa-Hurwitz, being shut out...

Santasha Malone, who applied to several charter schools for her kindergarten-bound son in early 2010, said she was told in February that her son was on Academic Leadership’s waiting list — though the lottery was not until April — and that she and her son were invited for an interview.

“They were basically the only school who had an interview before the lottery,” Ms. Malone, 32, said. After a teacher took her son to a classroom and asked him to name different objects around the room, they never heard from the school again.

While parents were being told they were on a waiting list, the school paid more than $16,000 its first year for marketing campaigns to drum up applications. After some students left and others were expelled, Dr. Figueroa-Hurwitz raised concerns about losing financing for underenrollment in a report to the board...

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Allegation: Authoring legislation to benefit wife's charter school operation?

“Senator faces ethics complaint.” Baraboo News Republic (WI) 6/11/2011

Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, violated a state ethics law when he authored legislation to financially benefit his wife, a liberal advocacy group alleges in a complaint.

Olsen has not responded to the complaint. But in an interview Friday, his wife called the allegation "ridiculous."

The complaint, filed Friday with the state's Government Accountability Board ,says Olsen inserted language in a bill that would allow a nonprofit headed by his wife to establish a charter school, and thus qualify for additional state funding.

"Sen. Luther Olsen believes he is above the law and that he can use his office to benefit himself and his wife," said Scot Ross, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, the group that filed the complaint...

Olsen co-sponsored a bill that would allow cooperative educational service agencies, known as CESAs, to establish independent charter schools.

CESAs are regional nonprofits created by the Legislature to provide education services to school districts. Olsen's wife, Joan Wade, is the agency administrator of CESA 6...

CESA 6 could benefit under the bill, because the agency would then be permitted to move forward with a proposal to turn an environmental center it runs into a charter school. The bill would provide funding for each child that enrolls in a CESA charter school.

The Senate Education Committee, which Olsen chairs, debated the bill Tuesday. As initially written, the bill would have only allowed CESAs to establish charter schools within their boundaries. But Olsen and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, offered an amendment to the bill - which was ultimately approved - to change that provision and allow CESAs to set up the schools outside their jurisdiction...

[Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee] asked Olsen whether there was a specific case he was referring to. Olsen chuckled as he responded, "There could be."

The CESA administered by Olsen's wife operates the Fallen Timbers Environmental Center for the six school districts that own it. The center is located near Seymour...

A representative of one of the six districts that owns the environmental center said Friday there have been no public discussions similar to what Olsen described...

But Wade, Olsen's wife, readily admitted Friday she has considered a scenario in which the environmental center would be converted into a charter school and run by CESA 6...

But Ross of One Wisconsin Now said Olsen's action on the charter school bill is different because it directly benefits his wife by providing her employer with increased financial stability.

"If you were in charge of an organization and that organization were to have a guaranteed source of funding, you have pretty much guaranteed yourself continued employment," Ross said Friday. "I think that's fair to say."...

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