Redmond Proficiency Academy

“Redmond charter school leader accused of sexual abuse resigns. He had been in talks to open similar school in Salem.” Statesman Journal (OR), 3/26/2012

The leader of a Central Oregon charter school accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old female student has resigned.

The Bulletin said the board of directors of Redmond Proficiency Academy accepted Michael Bremont’s resignation at a meeting Saturday.

Bremont, 39, was charged in February with sodomy, attempted rape and sexual abuse. He is scheduled to enter a plea April 9.

The school had put Bremont on paid administrative leave immediately after his Feb. 18 arrest.

Before his arrest, Bremont was in final negotiations with the Salem-Keizer School District to open a similar charter high school in Salem this fall...

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Vicki A. Romero High School

“Financial records reveal school board spent public money on home furnishings.” 3/23/2012

PHOENIX - A Valley charter high school used public funds to pay for and fully furnish a residential home in a neighborhood less than a half a mile from the school.

According to financial documents supplied to the ABC15 Investigators by the Vicki A Romero High School , a Phoenix charter school, the school paid more than $48,681 for upgrades, repairs, and amenities before a salaried school employee moved into the home for several months...

According to Arizona’s new accountability letter-grade standards, the school currently has a “D” rating, demonstrating a below average level of performance.

In an effort to find out how the board was making decisions related to the state aid it receives, the ABC15 Investigators attended the school board’s public meetings and filed a June public records request for documents revealing how specific payments and reimbursements are made to and from employees...

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Frontier Virtual Charter High School

“Frontier cyber-school students: All we want is to learn.” Philadelphia Daily News (PA), 3/23/2012

CAREY STONE is living Ferris Bueller's life - just the complete opposite of it, actually.

Every morning, the high-school senior calls her school's administrators, trying to find out where they are, wondering when they'll have classes for her to attend or let her hand in a report on "The Great Gatsby."

And every day, her calls go unanswered. "I feel like they're just brushing me off," she said. Carey, 18, and her sisters, Rachel, 15, and Harmony, 14, are enrolled at the Philadelphia-based Frontier Virtual Charter High School.

The school laid off its teachers and principal on March 8 and hasn't held any classes since...

...The state Department of Education is finishing an investigation into Frontier over numerous questions about financial and academic problems that were detailed last week by the Daily News...

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“Cyber-school kids truant, failing, and teachers have been dumped.” Philadelphia Daily News (PA), 3/14/2012

It all sounded so good on paper: a "global high school of the 21st century," a cyber school that would teach about 300 students two languages and keep them constantly engaged in learning.

That was how John Craig pitched the Frontier Virtual Charter High School to state education officials two years ago...

Frontier opened in the fall. It fell apart before the spring...

The cyber school seems to have serious money woes and other problems:

* Frontier - which is receiving $435,520 from the Philadelphia School District this year to educate 54 city students - didn't pay its teachers or principal in August, September and most of October, according to several sources who have direct knowledge of the school's troubles.

Since then, teachers had been paid only half of their $40,000 salaries.

* Craig said on Thursday that he was working on a plan to get the staff back pay and address other financial problems before the end of the school year. The following day, he laid off all the school's teachers and the principal. He later posted part-time teaching jobs on Craigslist.

* Craig, also an associate pastor at the Philadelphia Revival Temple Church, said that Frontier doesn't "have really any students that are truant" and that many "are doing fine" academically.

But records viewed by the Daily News show that numerous students are habitually truant or failing their classes - or both.

* Bills have gone unpaid, including some in excess of $80,000 for K12, the company that created Frontier's curriculum, sources said.

* Staffers raised repeated concerns about whether Craig and the school's board of trustees - which includes former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore - had violated the state's Sunshine Law by making decisions in private, sources said...

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ASPIRA, Inc. of Illinois

“ASPIRA charter school CEO fired.” Chicago Sun-Times (IL), 3/28/2012

The controversial president of ASPIRA charter schools was fired late Monday evening during a stormy board meeting that included a chorus of community protests about ASPIRA’s management...

[ASPIRA CEO Jose Rodriguez] is no stranger to controversy...More recently, under Rodriguez’s leadership, ASPIRA schools were investigated in 2008 for strip-searching high school girls and altering grades.

But in the end, according to sources, it was the test scores of ASPIRA students that led to Rodriguez’s dismissal. ASPIRA students have underperformed Chicago Public Schools averages for at least the last six years, according Illinois Report Card data...

...ASPIRA operates three high schools and one middle school.

Samantha Kipp, an ASPIRA teacher and council president of the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, presented a litany of complaints to the board, including a lack of resources such as textbooks and computers and administrators showing disrespect to teachers in front of students...

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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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Cesar Chavez Community School

“APD: Student had assault weapon in car.” KRQE News (NM), 3/3/2012

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A student at an Albuquerque charter school has been arrested for having a gun on campus.

Someone spotted an assault weapon in Andre Martinez's car at Cesar Chavez Community School near on Palomas Avenue SW near Gibson Boulevard Friday, according to Albuquerque police.

When they searched it police found the unloaded gun, a loaded magazine, two folding knives and a bayonet...

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“Teenage stabbing suspect name released; Police say Cecilio Lopez, 17, killed his classmate.” KRQU News (NM), 1/24/2012

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque police say they arrested 17-year old Cecilio Lopez in connection with the deadly stabbing of fellow classmate Jose de la Paz, also age 17, on Thursday.

Investigators believe it was all the end result of a simmering feud between Lopez and de la Paz which escalated from an argument...

Cesar Chavez Community School student Tanya Encinias spoke with News 13 and recounted the events of Thursday afternoon. "The guy that stabbed him was in the van with his dad yelling across the yard at the other kid," said Encinias. "...calling him names and saying that he's a stupid wetback and all this...then he just ran after him and attacked him."...

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Las Vegas Charter School of the Deaf

“Charter school for deaf signs off in bankruptcy.” Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV), 3/5/2012

Caroline Bass sinks behind a mountain of markers and student artwork and watches as her charter school is dis­assembled Thursday...

The Las Vegas Charter School of the Deaf, in the northwest valley, went bankrupt this summer after just three school years, said Bass, who's on the board of the school that took 10 years of planning to open. Even worse, board members are now $90,000 in debt because of the school's costs, which govern­ment funding didn't come close to covering...

Of the nine Nevada charter schools that have closed since 2000, none were for poor student performance, but for financial problems or bad record keeping...

The state provides about $5,000 per student to charter schools. For the deaf school, that amounted to about $55,000 a year at its peak, which wasn't even enough to pay its two teachers, an aide and a director...

The $5,000-per-student funding rate is the same at normal public schools, but charter schools have to start from scratch, finding a building, books and equipment.

"Your money is eaten up immediately," Bass said.

That's especially true at a school as small as the deaf school, where state funding doesn't cover operational costs, said Dan Tafoya, coordinator of the Clark County School District's Office of Charter Schools.

"You need a large number of students to stay operational," said Tafoya, noting that the district's smallest charter school is the Delta Academy, which has 225 students. Odyssey Charter School has about 1,500 students. "You really have to watch your P's and Q's."...

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