You parents, and staff must just be so proud.
For those of you who didn't have the chance to watch, here's the link: WFLA
Of course there was nothing really new in the reports...that is nothing that this blogger hasn't pretty much been saying and pointing out since the blog began.
So, the PTA can put up as many fawning signs saying they love the staff and teachers as they want, while they also push the petition, endorse dumping the management company, and pray for success.
But...it isn't quite so simple.
Research the names of the people in the various companies that are players in the roster:
Newpoint Education Partners,
Midwest Education Partners,
Wellington Crossings,
Charter School properties,
Cambridge Education Group, and of course,
Windsor Education.
Look at the intertwining of individuals involvement within, and between, these companies.
Look at the multiple failed, and nearly failing charter school operations with the same companies involved.
They pass the money round robin style.
And then allow my words "I told you so" to reverberate around inside your heads.
Some of you practically sold your souls for this school. Some of you sold your friends, and neighborhood out.
You must be so proud.
I know your neighborhood has had quite a struggle with this group. Perhaps if they were properly managed from the start, these issues would never have arisen.
ReplyDeleteThe best outcome would be to shut this circus down at the end of the school year and wish Newport Education godspeed!
Elizabeth
The thing is they can shut this school down, but then will merely reorganize and reopen. Newpoint shills own the property..the "school" is a puppet company. They are a nasty nasty bunch, and the laws allow this to just perpetuate.
DeleteHello AWP:
DeleteNewpoint owning the property doesn't mean Newpoint runs the school though under the scenario where the current Newpoint management is replaced. A new management company or the district can replace the current management company which runs the school so terribly at this time.
Of course a new management company could be hired, but the question is will this sleazebag group allow that. They could just shutter the school, reorganize, and reopen with a clean slate. It will be interesting to see it all play out.
DeleteHello AWP:
ReplyDeleteYou've addressed the scenario where Newpoint try to replace itself with it's friends - that's so wrong on so many level.
What about case when Newpoint can actually be over over thrown and with not possibility of handing off the school to another one of it's friends. Such as when the county takes over the school or is able to locate a proven management company with a great track record in Florida and is actually making good use of publics. Unlike these Newpoint crooks?
As I stated before, those are options, of course. But, will Newpoint want to drag this out and keep themselves open to more investigations and scandal? Will they want to continue working with a staff, and parents who are hostile towards them? I'm merely laying out a scenario that they have followed before. After all, the county has merely put them on notice. They will allow this to drag out for another year, and what the test results show? The last couple years the school has failed the kids miserably, and they EARNED an F. This year the middle school kids will test, and from what I've seen of their writing skills, I'm not sure how well that is going to go. Windsor can only get one more F or they lose the charter (remember this C everyone is so tickled with doesn't count as it isn't an EARNED grade).So....Will they really feel the hassle is worth it, or will they cut their losses, keep their profits, and fold for now? I really don't care, except for my frustration that as tax payers we ALL pay for this, and the kids lose. Primarily what we neighbors care about, is not going through the hell and torment we dealt with before. Afternoons are still pretty bad, but not as much so. I just think it's funny (sorry) that parents and staff were so arrogant, abusive, and nasty towards all of us neighbors, and that this is what they were rewarded with.
DeleteAlso, the County can't take over the school and keep it. The property is privately held. That's the biggest scam....the charter companies build these schools, fail the students, make obscene amounts of money at tax payer expense, then shutter. It's quite a vicious cycle. As I have posted about many times. For example, Windsor prep and East Windsor Middle will pay either five or seven million in lease/rent, plus something like five hundred thousand a year to the management company that oversees the schools. If they shutter, tax payers don't get any of that back, nor do they get the property, or fixtures. The only "property" they can get back are at most equipment and supplies purchased with government funds. Neato, huh?
DeleteTo clarify...the five to seven million in rent is over the course of the five year charters, and the five hundred thousand is annually. Do that math and try not to faint. All that money, and they can't afford text books, or Spanish and Gifted teachers? Mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteSo NEP, found a great business model of opening new Charter school from Ohio as White Hat. From there that formed new Charter school related business related companies among their friends and went to Florida. The LINKEDIN profile of the NEP company, indicates their next target is TN with a new company called Meridian Education. Take a look at the guy doing this: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dastiles
ReplyDeleteYes, David Styles is the grandmaster of all of this. And they have multiple target states. His companies tend to leave a pretty extensive trail of wreckage too.
DeleteYou do realize your talking about the lives of Innocent Children right? I get it, your mad and you hate Charters. But what happens to these kids if the school closes? Parents chose this school because their local public schools suck. Or are dangerous. Or both. And not everyone can afford to move to a new school zone. Shake your head and criticize all you want - but would t you feel better doing something about it - then you could brag about how you have an Awesome school in your neighborhood and your property values would go up.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that I don't control the future of thus school, don't you? I don't hate all charters either. What I do hate, are rude jackasses who seem to think that because this is the hot mess they chose to enroll their precious kids in, that I, as a resident of this neighborhood, and as a taxpayer, am expected to somehow delight in its presence as opposed to expecting it to be respectable, and for the staff and parents to behave decently. In all of your zeal for this "school", you declined to consider the impact it was having on the people of this neighborhood. And now, after you all have been rewarded with seeing everything I've posted about the companies that formed Windsor Prep/east Windsor coming to fruition, you to challenge that I,and my neighbors should be delighted. Or that we should have been delighted? And I did try, along with many of my neighbors "to do something about it". That merely resulted in a few of us being quite literally harassed. How is that fair or delightful? But, you naivety is delightful in that you somehow lay this at my feet. Here's a tip...next time, research the place you want to send your kid to. This company's history was bad before this school. I found all that info right from the first days of this blog. Perhaps had all you parents done that, you would have avoided this sad mess, and therein lies your responsibility...not mine
DeleteHello AWP:
ReplyDeleteAs a tax payer, the one thing I don't like is how this group of charter company friends of friends are using public funds and destroying our Nation's youth's education in the process. Look at the latest news:
http://wfla.com/2016/03/07/state-withholding-money-from-pinellas-charter-schools-due-to-financial-questions/
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-department-of-education-withholds-capital-outlay-payments-for/2267990
By far this is the best source I've found on this subject. What you documented is complex. Would mine putting a blog together on how this SCAM works and how the flow of cast of characters flow from OH, to Florida, then NC which they failed in, and next up is TN?
Maybe send your report to the two news reports as well. I saw on the last News Channel 8 report, every news reporter are upset their tax dollars are wasted this way. Focus your piece to the reporters on saving tax dollars and you're going to be a super star! Leave everything else you don't like out and you've got an audience that will LOVE YOU!!! We have to stop these folks from continuing this type of business!
Thank you for the links to the two news stories. I had missed both, and enjoyed reading them. As for the rest, I can assure you there are MANY bloggers out there posting the same info, for many years. That's why I keep reiterating that if the parents and staff members had researched Newpoint, and the other companies involved, they would have or could have avoided all of this. It was all easily accessible, easily understood information. Instead, most rushed into enrolling their kids here woefully uninformed, and in many cases with an alarmingly arrogant sense of entitlement, and disdain for others in how all of this was affecting them. This is not just this school, or this company doing this. It is a problem nationwide. Are there good Charter School, yes, but clearly this is not one.
DeleteI really, truly have pity for you. You are an angry person, who is so caught up in hatred you fail to have optimism - and o visually can't take constructive criticism. I send you love and happiness, joy and abundance, and pray for you to find some peace.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaw Cartoon Character Named person, thanks for your well wishes. Especially when they were followed by a snide comment, and the implication that I'm not a happy person and need to find peace in my life.
DeleteYet, It's not me trolling blogs and insulting others.
Further, I saw no "constructive criticism" in your previous comment. If you're angry because you don't like this blog, then I'll "pray for you to find peace" and suggest that you stay away.
Also, I find it interesting that so many people have taken such umbrage with this little blog, which merely discusses the tangible ways this school has impacted this neighborhood, and the disgusting abuse of our tax dollars.
It seems that you should be grateful for a blog like this, as well as the news reports which expose this school. After 4yrs. shouldn't they be better? Don't you want your kid(s) at a better school than this? Perhaps if you had researched this schools management/parent company in the first place, you would've spared yourself, and your kid(s) the heartache and frustration you're dealing with now. The information is out there and has been for over a decade.
And how about that little bit about how "awesome" it would be to have an "awesome" school in the neighborhood. No matter what right your kids have to an education ( which I agree with), we as a neighborhood also have rights.
DeleteWe should have the right to our yards not being parked in, hydrants not being blocked, cars not speeding and running stop signs, mailboxes not getting knocked down, insults being hurled, fences torn down, private property damaged, ambulances being prevented from getting in to critically ill patients,threats of physical violence, car horns blaring at dawns early light, traffic jams every day with cars blocking off entire roadways, and more. Yeah...that does A LOT for property values. And what about the house next door to the school with a dumpster right outside their front door? Wow, that was considerate. No sleeping in for them on trash day.
We as a neighborhood were granted no opportunity to fight the school expansion. It was all just thrown at us, and we were repeatedly told if we don't like it, move. That's really nice for people who have lived here 30 or 40 years ( and were here before even the tiny private school was built). They raised their families here. Worked hard for what they have. Shouldn't that matter too?
No one wants to deny any child an education. BUT, there also has to be such a thing as mutual respect.
Years ago, when neighbors approached school staff, we were quite literally told to "F-word" off. Another one said if we didn't like the traffic call the Sheriff's Office..knowing that the deputy sent to mitigate things was married to the school principals assistant.
Calls and emails to the parent company were ignored. When the county stepped in, the old principal told them multiple lies ( which the county representative caught even before we did).
Recently, the new principal was rude to a rep. from the new development built for handicapped veterans behind the school. That's a lovely way to show respect to those who have served our country, but all too typical for this school.
And keep in mind, that is the staff at the school..your beloved teachers and administration, NOT the greedy management company.
THAT SHOULD SPEAK VOLUMES TO YOU. IT SHOULD MATTER.
And this was all over what was merely a traffic complaint. Had the parents and staff of the school shown any decency or interest in integrating into this neighborhood, and respected anyone but themselves, it would never have escalated to this degree.
THAT IS ALL ON YOU GUYS.
So, again, sorry if you don't like what I do here, sorry if you like the reality of what your school is, and sorry that you feel stuck ( much like we in the neighborhood feel). Sorry if you don't like the fact that I won't stop.
Sometime life sucks Skippy. That's reality. At least I am trying to do something about it.
Hi AWP:
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened has happened, no one can change the past. I understand and agree with you, I have not seen what you said on this post as out of line for what has happened. A little compromise combined with logical reason, which you seem to have a lot of, will bring harmony back into your neighborhood. If given the opportunity to speak to a more moderate person from Windsor in the future, will you give compromise, consideration, mutual understanding through talks a chance?
I think the neighbors of this school would always be willing to discuss the matter in a reasonable manner. No one has tried to shut this school down as so many have assumed we were. Do we like that it is here, no. But it is, and apparently is to stay in some form or another. All any of us wanted was respect to be shown to our neighborhood. When respect is given, it is returned.
ReplyDeleteCompromise has never been something the other side was willing to do unfortunately. Bullying and intimidation seem to be their preferred choice of tactics.
But again, as I said, I'm sure that if sincere overtures were made they would be met fairly. However, I think the school has a lot more to worry about right now.