#ANOTHERDAYANOTHERCHARTERSCHOOLSCANDAL
Local charter schools share teachers as shortage continues
For three periods a day at Momentum Academy Tower Grove South certain classes aren’t being taught by the teacher physically in the classroom, but by a teacher a couple miles down the street at Live for Life Academy.
Muskegon Heights Academy board gives charter school company new deadline to fix staffing issues
The Muskegon Heights Academy board says the Detroit-based charter management company hired to help run the school system breached its contract by failing to fill critical staff vacancies.
The board approved a motion last week to give New Paradigm for Education a 30-day notice to correct the ongoing staffing issues, vice president Joseph Warren told MLive/The Muskegon Chronicle.
A Denver charter school focused on Indigenous education is fighting to stay open
The American Indian Academy of Denver opened in 2020 during the height of the pandemic with a goal of educating Indigenous students, who have long been among the most underserved in the district.
But the school is now struggling with low enrollment and a lack of funding, two factors that have doomed other Denver charter schools.
Charter school ‘gets creative’ to boost enrollment and pay off pricey lease
Underwater on a pricey lease on its facility, a charter school official in Plaquemine said he decided to “get creative” as they looked for ways to boost flagging student enrollment and generate enough money to pay the school’s landlord.
In a report released last week, outside auditors hired by the state to look into Iberville Charter Academy questioned both the onerous terms of the lease and how the school went about increasing its enrollment.
Why is the UW System working with the controversial Hillsdale charter school network?
Controversy surrounding Hillsdale charter schools led the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University in Wisconsin to threaten to sever ties last month with Lake Country Classical Academy — Wisconsin’s first Hillsdale-affiliated charter school. The tribe cited “inflammatory, derogatory, and racist comments captured by hidden camera” by the president of Hillsdale College, Larry Arnn. Arnn’s comments, which made headlines after they were leaked from a private meeting he had with Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee, also led to the collapse of a plan to launch several Hillsdale charter schools in that state.
1 out of 4 Duval County charter schools get D or F grades from state
Ten of Duval County’s 40 charter schools are now working to improve their operations after receiving “D” or “F” grades from the state. When charter schools get low grades, state law dictates that they turn in a plan to their sponsor, – in this case Duval County Public Schools, – with a roadmap of how to get the school preforming well again.
Washington Heights Church Puts A Stop To Charter School Possibility
The Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights sent a letter to its community recently saying that it had voted against a partnership that would lead to a charter school getting opened at the site.
The vote and email comes after a petition was signed by more than 600 people in an effort to stop the church located at 729 W. 181st St. from partnering with Civic Builders and opening the school.
Report: Decline in teachers with traditional education degrees linked to growth in charter schools
As charter schools proliferate across America, there has been a corresponding decline in the number of new teachers earning bachelor’s degrees in education from traditional preparation programs, according to a new study from the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH).
Hallelujah’: Kidnapping victims of former CT charter schools leader praise jury’s quick verdict
Thirty-eight years after he broke into four women’s homes, sexually assaulted them and held them against their will, a jury on Wednesday convicted former Connecticut charter schools leader Michael Sharpe on all eight counts of first-degree kidnapping
Charter school improperly charging fees despite state law, taxpayer funding, audit says
Outside auditors are recommending the immediate closure of a charter school in Plaquemine for, among other things, charging parents thousands of dollars “in tuition and fees” to educate their children at remote locations across the state — even though the school received between $14,000 to $16,000 a year in public education funding for each of those kids.
Indianapolis charter school announces intent to acquire IPS school building if it closes
The district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan — an attempt to address declining enrollment amid charter school growth — would leave multiple school buildings open for charter schools to potentially occupy. Victory College Prep is the first to publicly announce its intentions to acquire such a building.
State law allows charter schools to lease or acquire empty school buildings for $1.
Judge sentences Broward charter school operator president for embezzling public funds
A federal judge sentenced Jimika Williams on Thursday to 40 months in prison after she was convicted of embezzling federal public education funds that were meant to help children in need in Broward County.
While she was the president of Advancement of Education in Scholars Corporation, a non-profit organization that operated Paramount Charter School, Williams embezzled $389,857, according to prosecutors.
Chicago school board moves to take over once-lauded charter serving Black boys
Chicago’s school board moved Wednesday to take over two South Side charter campuses that specialize in serving Black boys — an unprecedented step to pull the school’s charter but preserve an academic model officials acknowledged has delivered for many students.
School board members voted unanimously to revoke the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men’s charter. They forcefully rejected the school’s arguments for more time to prove they are on the right track, and voicing dismay at the school’s response to a sexual misconduct investigation involving the school’s founder.
2 Hillsborough charter schools pledge improvements after dismal results
Students are chronically absent. The vast majority cannot pass state reading tests. And they’re often taught by substitute teachers.
For an hour on Tuesday, the Hillsborough County School Board heard detailed descriptions of Village of Excellence Academy and Village of Excellence Middle School, two publicly funded yet independently managed charter schools with a combined enrollment of 267 students.
Harpswell charter school hunts for ways to reopen even as it plans its closure
The leaders of Harpswell Coastal Academy are searching for ways to keep the school open, even as they begin the complex, untried process of shutting down at the end of the academic year, according to Interim Head of School Mel Christensen Fletcher.
“We know that we’re closing as one of Maine’s 10 charter schools, but we are looking at whether we have any other options to reform as something else,” Christensen Fletcher said. “If we can find something else that will work for us, we want to see if we can make that happen.”