Just the facts folks

Keep in mind folks, just because you find info on a blog doesn't mean that is all there is. Or that it is true. Research it. Dig. Know where your tax dollars are going. I have learned so much from some of these incredible bloggers who have incredible time and effort into what they post. BUT, I have only used the info I find there as a launching point to do my own research. It's amazing how much you can find. Thank God for the Sunshine Law which means everything has to be available for review. 

That said....


Some of the following taken from a great post:  Florida charter schools (investigator observations) , found on: http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/  and a link to the original post : http://blog.floridapublicemployees.com

"In everyone of our investigative cases, the schools were set up as nonprofit organizations. Most hired management companies to oversee the day to day operation of the schools. They all had a Board of Directors, had applied for and granted a Charter to be a school from local school districts as governed by Florida State Statute 1002.33 http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/. Their main source of revenue was per pupil funding – called Full Time Equivalent (FTE). Some received more funding based on student disabilities.  In every case the drive to recruit more students was the primary focus of the schools and management companies. Most schools had received additional funding from available grants and all claimed Tax Exemptions as nonprofit organizations."

In just about every case the founders of the Charter Schools had ties to the Board of Directors which authorized the hiring of the management companies to run the schools. Even worse, we discovered the owners of the management companies were either the same as the school founders or were directly connected to them.  All of which revealed major conflicts of interests in most of the decisions made on the spending of Tax Dollars and education of students."

Now let's consider some of the fine folks that make up both the parent company, and the management company that created and oversee this esteemed "F" school Windsor Prep, and the second school they established on the same property (which is also a gimmick charters like to use to make more MOOLAH - it's sort of their form of double and triple dipping, but more on that LATER)

Read this article (excerpt below) from back at the beginning of the school year when the school dropped all those kids who had enrolled in the East Windsor middle school at Cashing In On Kids. I think it's a great introduction to the layers and players involved in this school's creation and management.
"  Is a Florida company run by former White Hat Management employees carrying on the White Hat tradition of poor performance and incompetent school management? White Hat’s problems in Ohio are well documented.
  Former White Hat employees launched at least two other companies, Cambridge Education Group and Newpoint Education Partners. Newpoint is affiliated with at least two other companies, Midwest Education Partners LLC and Windsor Education LLC. It’s this last company that seems to be bungling school operations in Florida.
  Windsor Education LLC manages East Windsor Middle Academy in St. Petersburg, Fla., where students and parents learned a hard lesson in mathematics when they were “subtracted” from enrollment only 4 days before the new charter school was to open its doors for the first time. "
So let's get to it!

  First, let's leave Florida and head up to the fine state of Ohio. They have had more than a few problems with a shady Charter School company, "White Hat Management", as have several other states. You can read  a bit about them here Cashing In On Kids (blog) and another article on how they conduct their oh so lucrative business practices here Cleveland.com. 

Go back to the links I posted previously putting these guys here in Florida opening Newpoint Education Partners. Make the connections between them and Windsor Education LLC. Look at the money (MILLIONS) Newpoint and Windsor will be making from tax dollars paid by folks like you and me. WE MATTER!

You've seen the posts On Newpoint Education Partners schools here in Florida. I posted too about how North Carolina ruled against them because of the shady dealings. 

This is what our tax dollars go to. This is who our tax dollars go to. I'm sure there are very nice teachers at these schools. I'm sure that all the parents genuinely want the best for their kids. But is that enough? Is that what you are getting? This company, and many of the people associated with it have a trail of failed schools, broken promises, and in some cases criminal and civil cases. 
I agree that our current education system needs help, but is pouring your hard earned tax dollars into a shadowy corporate scheme really the way to go? 

"In October, ...The Pinellas board heard similar presentations from four charter schools.

In both counties, charter operators described a return to mainstream teaching methods....In Pinellas, officials for Windsor Preparatory Academy told the board they have elected to use the School District's curriculum this year, which prompted board member Carol Cook to ask, "What are you doing differently? … You're using the same curriculum, doing the same testing."   tampabay.com    

The bottom 307 taken from www.tampabay.com

Florida lawmakers want to direct added resources to the 307 elementary schools that have the lowest reading results on the annual FCAT exam. The schools are required to provide an additional hour of daily reading instruction during the coming school year, which can get expensive. District officials have called this an unfunded mandate. The local schools on the 2014 list are:

Hillsborough County: Potter, Village of Excellence Academy, Miles, Edison, Washington, Oak Park, Sulphur Springs, Sheehy, Kimbell, Just, Robles, Trapnell, Dunbar Magnet, Desoto, Reddick, Cleveland, Clair-Mel, New Springs, Lockhart Magnet, Shaw, West Tampa, James, Bryan and Mort.

Pasco County: Gulfside, Lacoochee and Cox.

Pinellas County: Melrose, Fairmount Park, Maximo, Lakewood, Campbell Park, High Point, Sandy Lane, Ponce de Leon, Lealman Avenue, Woodlawn, Pinellas Park, Bear Creek, Windsor Charter, New Heights, Seventy-Fourth Street and Blanton.

What I love is one of the articles I read .Jessica Clements, the former pricipal of Windsor Prep and of east Windsor told the School Board that  the school had improved over the prior year. What did that make them then, an "F-minus" school? **Isn't is the third graders that they test? Hmmm, does anyone know a third grade teacher that they could ask?*

pcsb.schoolwires.net

So, we sit and wait, and wonder if the school improvement plan, where they determined the best course would be to teach the same curriculum as Pinellas County Public schools, and further utilize the same teaching techniques worked for them. Or will we  have another year of bemoaning the fact that their students are economically challenged and come from bad places and previous schools. Of course their stats don't necessarily match that argument, but that is for another post.And keep in mind that the charter agreement for "F"school Windsor Prep expires in June 2916, so they are currently applying for another..... 

Oh...has anyone ever asked how many special needs students they have accepted into their school?