Nine ousted or investigated in Ohio’s largest charter school network

At least nine employees, from secretaries to school board presidents to founding executives, have been named in two separate internal investigations as family ties link taxpayer-funded jobs in Ohio’ largest chain of charter schools.

The governing board of Akron-based Summit Academy Management, one of Ohio’s oldest charter school management companies, has placed president Gerald Horak, vice president James Bostic and Horak’s son, Joseph, on paid leave, according to the board president of a local charter school that hired the company to run the operations.

Joseph Horak’s wife also works for Summit, though she has not been named in the investigation. The Beacon Journal reported in mid-May that top officers had been removed, but the company has not elaborated on who or the reasons.

And while the private company won’t disclose the nature of its investigation, a second investigation conducted by the schools’ sponsor — a public agency — has uncovered potential conflicts of interest involving school board members and family members who work for the company.

Three school board members, including Bostic’s sister-in-law, have stepped down following a review of family relationships by the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West — which sponsors 24 of the 26 Ohio charter schools managed by Summit.

The sponsor issued letters to the three Dayton, Xenia and Akron charter schools, citing state law prohibiting nepotism and calling the family relationships “potential legal and ethical issues.”

(Read more at Ohio.com)

Charter Schools Continue To Fail Ohio Students. Where is David Hansen??

It’s a bad week to be David Hansen, who heads Ohio’s charter school accountability office.

The Columbus Dispatch tells us that the Imagine Columbus Primary Academy, a chronically failing charter, might be forced to close its doors amid concerns over an exorbitant, conflict-laden lease that leaves little money for classroom instruction.

WDTN in Dayton reports that three people were convicted of bribery and taking kickbacks at a Dayton charter.

And today the ODE sent letters to three charter schools (Imagine Cleveland, Villaview and Cleveland Community School) threatening to shut the schools down because their “performance has generally been a failure.”

While these developments are new, charter school scandals in Ohio are routine. In fact, Ohio’s charters are so famously bad that even the head of the pro-charter group, StudentsFirst, said that most Ohio charter schools “stink.”

Lest anyone think the comment was taken out of context, here is the full quote from Greg Harris, who directs StudentsFirst Ohio:

“We think a lot of them (charters) need to be closed, because they’re not doing a good job,” Harris said. “We think charters have a role in the education base, but we also think most of the charters in Ohio stink.”

Back to David Hansen, whose official title is head of the Office of Quality School Choice and Funding.

What does he do for the tax dollars we pay him? Has he taken any steps to correct the pattern of wrongdoing? Does he have a position on the charter school reform bills moving through the legislature?

Lots of other folks have positions and are not shy about giving them.

(Read more at Plunderbund)

Ohio Charter Schools' Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week (and it's not even over yet)

Talk about a rough week. Take a look at the news stories coming out about charter schools this week.

On Saturday, the Akron Beacon Journal (again) led the way on enterprise reporting on this topic by publishing an analysis of 4,263 audits done last year by the Auditor of State revealed that "No sector — not local governments, school districts, court systems, public universities or hospitals — misspends tax dollars like charter schools in Ohio."
Yikes.

Among the findings:

While charters only accounted for 400 of 5,800 audits, they accounted for 70% of the misspent money
$25 million in misspent money remains unpaid
For every $1 misspent found by private auditors, public auditors found $102
The misspending is probably worse than what the audits turned up because so many charters were next to impossible to audit, according to the Beacon Journal.

Then came a Columbus Dispatch editorial (historically, no friend of the charter critic) that called out charter school sponsors for wanting to hide their expenditures to oversee the sector, except in limited cases -- an argument not much different from one I made about the same time.

Later that same day, the Dispatch revealed that the troubled North Side Imagine charter school might be shut down because its board just up and quit. This is the same school that was found last year toy be spending an exorbitant amount of money leasing the property from a subsidiary of Imagine Schools -- a practice that was found to be illegal in Missouri. Imagine Schools, Inc. run schools in 11 states and are no stranger to controversy.

Meanwhile, the same day, the Dayton Daily News reported that three former Dayton-area charter school officials were convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges in connection with their operation of the Arise! Academy.

They all face at least 15 years in federal prison for steering lucrative contracts to each other.

(Read more at 10th Period)

State Suspends Four Northeast Ohio Charter Schools

The Ohio Department of Education sent letters to administrators from Cleveland’s Villaview Community School, Imagine Cleveland Academy, and Cleveland Community School, along with Canton’s Imagine on Superior Academy, letting them know the decision came down after state officials determined the schools weren’t meeting the required level of student performance.

“We did our own evaluations of each of those schools and determined that these four schools were not meeting student performance standards that they set down in their own contracts,” ODE spokesperson John Charlton told our partners at WKSU. “And also that there were some violations of state and federal law regarding services provided to special education students.”

The schools were each sponsored by the now-defunct Portage County Educational Service Center.

(Read more at NPR)

State puts three charter schools on notice to close -- Imagine Cleveland, Villaview and Cleveland Community

The state has put three charter schools in the city on notice that they could be shut down for poor academic performance -- Imagine Cleveland and the Villaview and Cleveland Community School partnership.

"The School's performance has generally been a failure," the Ohio Department of Education said in letters to each of the schools. "The school has completely failed to meet the student performance requirements of the contract and generally has a long history of poor academic performance."

All three are failing to manage their budgets properly, ODE also said in the letters, and the Villaview and Cleveland Community School partnership could face ethics charges.

"The Governing Authority and (Superintendent Lillian) Brown may have also violated state ethic and criminal laws related to Ms. Brown moving from the Board chairperson to the Superintendent's position at a salary," the letter to those two schools reads.

Read more at Cleveland.com

Just Another Day In The Wild Wild West of Ohio Charterland

The Dispatch has an article chronicling the almost comical doings of the Imagine Columbus Primary Academy charter school.

Let's go down the list of shenanigans

six members who resigned in recent weeks amid ongoing concerns about a high-cost building lease, teacher turnover and adequate services for students.

Almost the entire board of the school resigned because they had so little control over the management company, thanks to Ohio's charter school laws that allow operators more power than the boards. So what's this lease issue that caused these resignations?

Board members complained that the $700,000 annual lease consumes too much of the school’s $1.3 million annual budget. According to the Franklin County auditor’s office, the building, at 4656 Heaton Rd., is valued at $1,164,600.

Schoolhouse Finance purchased the building in 2005 for $1.5 million and made $2.6 million worth of improvements, according to the auditor’s website. SchoolHouse sold the building in 2006 for $5.2 million to a real-estate investment trust, then leased it back from the trust to charge rent to the school.

That's not a school, that's a real estate scam designed to bilk tax payers. And if you need further proof there's this

The school opened in the 2013-14 school year, just months after another Imagine School that occupied the same building under a different sponsor was closed for poor academic performance.

Again, Ohio's ridiculous charter laws allows these for profit companies to sponsor shop, even after they have been closed down for terrible performance.

Why are the schools so terrible? Because so much money is being siphoned away with dodgy lease deals there was none left to spend on paying teachers

Sinoff said board members also tried to increase teacher salaries, concerned that low salaries of $30,000 a year were causing high turnover.

No wonder we're starting to see a number of charter schools teachers consider joining teachers unions. So what of this schools sponsor, the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center?

In an interview with The Dispatch hours before threatening to close the school, the education service center’s Lahoski said he was unaware of the board departures but he, too, wanted answers about how operators were spending the money they receive.

Providing so little oversight, the sponsor was totally unaware of the resignations, and only when the situation reached comically high levels of absurdity are they even beginning to think about closing the school.

So where is the Ohio Department of Education in all of this?

Ohio Department of Education spokesman John Charlton said the agency oversees the educational service center and other charter-school sponsors and encourages them to hold school operators accountable.

“If a school isn’t doing what they are supposed to, we want the sponsor to step in,” he said.

Passing the buck and ignoring the problem as always. Meanwhile 150 young children are not getting the education they deserve and that tax payers have paid for. It's just another day in the wild wild west of Ohio Charterland